A Meeting Along The Stars
by Deathzealot
Summary: Two years after the end of the Vajra War and a new enemy has appeared to threaten the newly settled colony. One never before seen. Can the heroes from the Vajyra War come together and defend their new home from this dire threat...and maybe find some few new friends along the way. Wayward Family Part 1 [Macross F/nBSG Crossover Story]
1. Prelude: Hard Contact

**Disclaimer: I do not in any way own the franchises known as Macross or Battlestar Galactica, they are owned by their respective owners. I only claim to own the plot, the new characters, and everything else I have created for the purpose of this story. So please support the official release. Thank you. **

**Macross Frontier: Meeting Along the Stars **

_**Part of the Wayward Family Series **_

_A Macross Frontier and Battlestar Galactica Crossover Story_

_Written by, _

_William R. Woods _

_aka, "deathzealot" or "deathzealotzero" _

**Foreword: **

To start things off, I like to welcome you all to the total rewrite of my old Lucky Miracle story, a Macross and Battlestar Galactica Crossover, which I decided to use as my project for this year's National Novel Writing Month. It will be quite different from the original story with new ideas, and a new will being put into the story. Not to mention I am splitting the main story into two different shorter stories to make things a bit more varied. Both are going to cover a different point of view of a different faction and characters. However, both stories are going to be crossovers, with them being crossed with Macross and Battlestar Galactica.

This story is going to follow the canon characters from Macross Frontier and be based after the end of the TV Series itself. I am going to be playing a bit loose with Macross canon since it is kind of a given that it is quite a headache with the events of the original series and those of the movie _Do You Remember Love_ kind of interact with one another which make things a bit tedious when writing for this fandom. That is not even considering the Frontier movies themselves, which introduce a completely different series of events for the series. Hence. I am warning you all now I am going to be mainly following both the original Macross series and the Frontier series. Though there are some things I am taking from the movies that I liked far better, for example, the characters of Alto Saotome and Ranka Lee had already met before the start of the Vajra War. Though I am not going to have them being close friends as the Frontier Movies had them, they just know each other mostly through Ranka's best friend Nanase, who is Alto's classmate. Not mention Ranka being acquainted with Alto's other major classmates Michael and Luca, through her brother Ozma Lee who works for the private military contractor SMS. Other things I have taken from the movies are quite small that they really don't matter all that much in the scheme of the story.

Another thing I am going to be following with this story is some of the background stuff from the Variable Fighter Master File books and the Macross Chronicle magazine. All of which I have gotten second hand from either the Sketchley's Translation Website or one of the Macross Threads on the Mecha Talk forum. So those who have read these publications in their original Japanese and believe I have gotten somethings wrong then I do apologize, but like I said, I got it all second hand from another source.

With that, I am going to end these notes and get to the main event. I like to thank you all for reading, and I do hope you enjoy the story.

\- William R. Woods  
November 1, 2019

**Prelude: Hard Contact **

_The Colony of Terra Nova was officially settled by the human's 55__th__ Long Distance Colonization Fleet, titled the Macross Frontier Fleet, on November 21, 2059, on the former homeworld of the Vajra Alien Race who had since mostly left this galaxy behind. Due to the very near Earth-like conditions of the planet, it would be named Terra Nova in honor of this tidbit. _

_While officially settled on November 21 the Macross Frontier Fleet landed on the planet on September 25 after a massive space battle in orbit against the alien Vajra and later the rebellious Macross Galaxy when it was discovered that they had somehow taken over the Vajra using them to launch attacks across the galaxy including the total destruction of another Colony Fleet. The Frontier Fleet's _Island One _City Ship was then landed on the planet while the remaining six Auxiliary City Ships of the Fleet remained in orbit with the remainder of the Fleet's Defense Forces. Before any construction on a new colony could begin however it will take around a month for the fleet's various scientists and such to clear the planet for full settlement. While this happened, the colonists of the Fleet where housed in a place that started to be called Landing City on the coast of the inland sea, now known as the Aimo Sea, which was made from dozens of prefabricated buildings stored on the fleet. _

_It was on November 7 that the construction of Frontier City, on the opposite bank of the Aimo Sea from Landing, was started. The initial construction of the new city was quite quick thanks to transplanting numerous intact buildings from the landed Island One City Ship to the construction site. Finally, on November 21 colony of Nova Terra was officially settled which was celebrated with a three day holiday which included a concert by the joint talents of Ranka Lee and Sheryl Nome, a large carnival hosted by the Galactic Carnival Corporation, a series of Vanquish Valkyrie Races through the skies of the new colony, and finally a large air show which ended with a spectacular firework show that evening. _

_Outside of the normal, these celebrations were not just for new colonists of Nova Terra but the visiting colony fleets of _Megaroad-09_ and _Macross Olympia_ who had arrived to not only help in the construction of the new colony but to help further secure the colony from any threats. _

\- Taken from a Galaxy Network News Article on the Settlement of the Terra Nova Colony  
Published, Circa. November 28, 2059AD

**-o-o-o-**

**UNAS **_**Horizon  
**_**Planetoid A-111-D  
****A-111 Solar System  
****Vilos Globular Cluster  
****September 16, 2061AD **

The solar system known simply as A-111 wasn't anything special just a few rocky planetoids, and a small Venus-like planet all orbiting a tiny brown dwarf star. It didn't have any notable asteroids, there were no awe-inspiring gas giants, and did not have any habitable planets. It is just a tiny solar system out of the way of anything notable. Even then, it made an excellent place to use as a meeting point hence the reason for three ships to be sitting pretty much peacefully nearby one of the rocky planetoids that made up much of the system. Two ships were clearly warships with several weapon turrets gracing their hull and colored a dark gray while the third ship looked to be some sort of transport ship. It was painted in a yellow and orange scheme that clearly said it was not a warship if its stretched box-like form didn't already say it. It also a bit smaller than the two warships escorting it coming out just shy of two hundred meters in length.

On the bridge of the transport, a single figure sat at the ship's helm station could only stare out of the viewport with a starry-eyed look on their face. The figure was a young dark-skinned human male who clearly was not paying any attention to his station or anywhere else on the bridge like he really should be. He just simply stared out of the bridge viewport with a thoughtful almost starry-eyed look on his face as he was lost in his own thoughts about something or another. A second older figure quietly entered the bridge and could only sigh at the sight before taking a seat in the captain's chair of the tiny bridge that served as the overall brain of the rugged transport ship. This figure took a moment to look at some information on his own station before turning his attention to the first figure.

"Travis!" he barked out at the young man making him nearly jump from his station due to the surprise. The young man, one Travis Mayweather, looked over at the older man with an embarrassed air.

"Dad…I meant Captain, sorry about that…just the _Hampton _launched a patrol, and I kind of got distracted," the young lad managed to stutter out to the man who happened to not only be the ship's captain but the lad's father as well who only waved his son's concerns away with a grunt and a thoughtful stare at the younger man. He knew that Travis was quite a fan of watching Variable Fighters and dreamed of piloting one in the future. Therefore, while he was surprised at his son's dream he still supported him for it would help him in the future.

"I know you can't wait till you enter the military flight academy back home but please son keep focused on your duty here on the old _Horizon _for now," the older man mentioned with a stern frown before it morphed to a small, proud smile when his son only nodded with a wince at his rebuke before turning his attention back to his station. Travis had managed to get accepted to their colony fleet's premier military flight academy where he would be trained to pilot variable fighters, and when he graduated, he would join the fleet's defensive garrison fleet.

"That said, I just finished talking with Captain Fredricks. He has informed me that our escort to Terra Nova shall be here in an hour or two. When that happens, we shall be back on our way to the colony," the man mentioned with a small grin on his face. Travis looked up at this with a curious look on his face.

"Oh? Are they sending anything more than just a couple more _Northampton _Class Frigates, or are they sending a full-on fleet of ships?" the young man asked as he turned back to his station, adjusting the ships position slightly. His father just shook his head with a broad smile on his face.

"Nope. Apparently, the Terra Nova Government is quite serious about making sure nothing happens to our cargo. They are sending the _Macross Quarter _herself out to escort us back to the colony," he mentioned almost unconcerned and was quite amused when he saw his son jolt in some surprise at this statement.

"Really? The _Quarter_ herself!" the young man mentioned in some excitement, making his father laugh in response at his eagerness. He was quite aware of his son had heard all about what that ship had done during the Vajra War. Not to mention the hero worship the young man had with the notable famous pilots who flew off the flight deck of the _Macross Quarter_.

"Yep like I said apparently Terra Nova is not going to let any chance of someone finding out our cargo and try to take it," the Captain mentioned with a nod before sighing and once again eyed the display on his own station which his son saw making him calm down a bit from his youthful excitement.

"The cargo is still making you nervous, dad," Travis mentioned out loud, looking up at this father in some concern. The captain sighed at this before turning his attention back to his son.

"I just think carrying Protoculture Artifacts is dangerous, and the sooner the _Quarter _arrives, the better," the captain mentioned with a grim frown on his face making his young son nod in some understanding. However, before anything else could be said between the two a series of large flashes could be seen outside of the ship and the unmanned sensor station of the ship started to beep harshly for attention. The captain quickly brought up the sensor station's readings on his own monitor and looked at them in some surprise. As outside the flashes resolved into a trio of unknown ships.

"This don't make any sense," he muttered in some surprise, "We should have detected them long before this!"

"Dad!" Tavis called out in some surprise as the three ships literally launched a literal storm of missiles at the small convoy. A moment later a cloud of fighters started to launch from the three ships, a cloud that the transport's sensors were reporting to be somewhere around a thousand unknown fightercraft. Those fighters also launched several missiles apiece themselves filling the once empty space with a massive tsunami of missiles all heading for the three ships.

"Oh god," his father whispered in dread and looked back down at the sensor readings before looking back up at the viewport. The patrolling VF-171 Nightmare Plus Valkyries turning to intercept the ships were caught flatfooted by the barrage, and numerous missiles slammed into them overwhelming their armor damaging or destroying them. A moment later, the paired _Northampton _Class Stealth Frigates escorting the transport suddenly erupted themselves as their point defenses started up while several further Nightmare Plus Valkyrie fighters launched from both ships. The approaching missiles soon started to die as between the transforming battleroids of the Nightmares and the ship's point defense weapons. Another closer flash could be seen as one of the frigates, the _Hampton_, opened up with its primary particle beam cannons which reached out and sliced right through one of the unknown ships with no effort at all destroying the ship while also destroying several of the quickly approaching fighters along its path. This was soon joined by another particle beam cannon from the second frigate, reaching over the top of the _Horizon_, as it destroyed the second unknown ship, while the _Hampton _managed to heavily damage the third ship with several hits from its smaller secondary particle cannons. This cheered up the watching men on the bridge of the transport, as the Valkyries slammed into the wave of fighters, destroying dozens of the attacking fighters as they launched their own missiles, but that soon changed as a few dozen of the unknown fighters suddenly disappeared in their own smaller white flashes before reappearing closer to the two frigates and the _Horizon_ before firing off further missiles at the _Hampton _who happened to be the closet of the two frigates. The ship's pin-point barriers flared at the destructive force of the exploding missiles, others simply flew past the ship as its ECM spoofed the missiles, and the point defense of the ship managing to take out the rest of the missiles.

The captain on the bridge of the _Horizon _looked down at his station at some further beeping from it and could only stare in sheer shock at the readings displayed there before with speed he didn't know he had he grabbed the figure of his son now watching the growing fighter battle in some awe before he suddenly grunted in some surprise at his father grabbed him and with little effort, dragged him towards a nearby, red-colored hatch. With a smash of his fist, the captain slammed the glass covering a single red button next to the hatch and then threw his son bodily through the opening hatch, which led to the emergency escape capsule set aside for the ship's bridge crew. Then a moment later, saw the hatch slamming shut, and the capsule launched out of the transport.

"Dad! No!" Travis cried out as his head started to clear from the rough handling of his father, and he looked through the small porthole just in time to see several missiles from above and to the sides of the _Horizon _slam into the ship's hull. The fighters that launched the missiles soon disappearing in further flashes. Thanks to being only a humble transport, the _Horizon _didn't have any armor, nor did it have any sort of barrier equipped. Therefore, the missiles easily breached through the thin hull of the ship before exploding.

"NO!" Travis screamed out as the transport, a ship that he had been born on and had lived on all his life, started to break apart from several internal explosions. He could see a few other escape pods being launched from elsewhere on the ship but nothing from the ship's bridge much to his horror. That horror continued as he watched as a fourth enemy ship suddenly appeared in a flash literally next to the _Hampton _and unloaded a broadside of large anti-ship missiles into the vastly smaller ship turning the frigate into a floating burning wreck_. _The second frigate, the _Axelrod _moved around its stricken sister ship to fire its main battery at the fourth ship, which resulted in several explosions along the hull of the ship before it disappeared in another large flash. The point defense of the frigate claiming around a dozen further of the tiny attacking fighters as they tried the same trick as with the _Horizon_, attacking from several angles,but soon the _Axelrod _joined its sister as with several large flashes a few larger missiles suddenly slammed into the ship splitting it into two halves from a massive explosion from the missiles overloading the ships barriers. A few moments later Travis saw the unknown fighters disappearing in tiny flashes, leaving behind several damaged but intact Nightmare Plus fighters, and everything was quiet once more with only his own quiet sobbing being all the sound, he could hear as his tiny escape capsule peacefully floated along the gathered debris of the battle.

**-o-End-o-**

**Post Chapter Notes**

Okay. That is the story's quick little prelude chapter, and right off the bat, we see the Cylons for some reason decided to attack a New United Nations Government Transport carrying protoculture artifacts to the Macross Frontier Fleet's new colony. This shall be further explored in the next few chapters with it being explained why such a cargo was being transported to the colony. That said, I kind of burrowed the character of Travis Mayweather, his unnamed father, and the name of the _Horizon _from the _Enterprise _TV show. This was mainly because I always thought that the idea of the Earth Cargo Services and their freighters were quite interesting. I just changed Travis's fascination from joining Starfleet to piloting Variable Fighters for a living.

Anyhow. I do believe that I am going to be using larger chapter prefaces then I usually do with my stories. This was mainly to somewhat copy how the Macross Frontier series had little infodumps before the start of several episodes. So, expect the majority of said prefaces from being quite long in the scheme of things and a bit of an infodump at times. That said, yes, I named Frontier's new colony Terra Nova which I think is far better than just the Frontier Colony as some other post-Frontier Series authors do. The idea behind this name came from the second Frontier movie where one of the lines, when Island One made it to the planet's surface, was that it has a biosphere pretty much exactly like Earth. Hence, I decided to name the colony Terra Nova in honor of that line, which I thought sounded better than just simple New Earth. Besides I do believe we already have a colony named New Earth somewhere in the background fluff of the Macross series.

Meanwhile, the _Macross Olympia _mentioned in the preface and be mentioned a few times throughout this story and the series itself is said to be the other sister fleet of the Frontier in some of the background material for the series. It took part in Project Triangular, which was supposed to develop a new Valkyrie fighter for the use of the Frontier, Olympia, and Galaxy Colony Fleets. All of which would be based heavily on the downgraded YF-24 Evolution schematics given to them and other colonies by Earth. The Frontier would develop the VF-25 Messiah, the Olympia would develop the unnamed YF-26, which really didn't get anywhere, and the Galaxy would develop the VF-27 Lucifer. It is pretty much a given that the Messiah would have ended up winning the development project thanks to the Galaxy's leadership plan and a few other different things they did with the Lucifer. Thanks to that don't be surprised to see Messiahs in the service of other colony fleets throughout this story and the series itself.

Anyway, I do think that is about it for these notes of mine. I am still working on the next chapter though once I finish that I am going to be seeing about moving over to the other story. Therefore, I shall see you all when I get that completed in a few days.


	2. Chapter One: To Arms

**Chapter 01: To Arms **

_After the end of the Vajra War and the landing of the Macross Frontier Colony Fleet on the Vajra's former homeworld, an investigation was launched into the dealings of President Leon Mishima and several other notable figures in the leadership of the Colony Fleet. This investigation was done jointly by the United Nations Intelligence Service Branch on the recently arrived Macross Olympia Colony Fleet and a team drawn from the Macross Olympia New United Nations Spacy Garrison Forces. This investigation saw the arrest or forced retirement of many figures throughout the Frontier's leadership, including much of the remaining cabinet ministers and a few notable senators. The investigation also saw around a dozen high ranking officers of the New United Nations Spacy arrested for several charges, including corruption and treason. While the investigation did clear Commodore Jason Perry, overall Commander of the Macross Frontier New United Nations Spacy Garrison Forces, he decided to quietly retire thanks to his own personal guilt what had happened in the final weeks of the war including the Glass Assassination. _

_It was this series of investigations that started to see the remaining population of the Macross Frontier Colony Fleet start to lose faith in their own government and the leadership of their own military. While the former was easily fixed with the election of a whole new government by the people, the later was a bit more challenging to repair. It was the new President of the colony that came up with the idea that would fix the population's faith in their military. This idea would see the contract for the local branch of the Private Military Contractor, Strategic Military Services (SMS), the overall heroes of the Vajra War, to be modified to allow them to become the primary defense force of the new Colony. This would see much of the remaining New United Nations Forces of the Macross Frontier Garrison Forces be rolled into the SMS Frontier Branch, creating the new SMS Nova Terra Defense Force. This soon saw the installment of Colonel Jeffery Wilder, the overall field commander of the SMS Macross Frontier Branch and Captain of the SMS _Macross Quarter_ as the new Director and Commander of the SMS Nova Terra Defense Force. _

_This move was officially protested by the New United Nations Spacy High Command and the New United Nations Government Parliament on Earth, but newly elected President of the Nova Terra Colony, Chelsea Scarlett responded that under the Eden Treaty that ended the Second Unification War an individual member state of the New United Nation Government was allowed an ultimate free hand in dealing with their own Garrison Forces. She would also point out that the 59__th__ Long Distance Colonization Fleet, Macross Verge, had recently started a more pacifistic approach to its defense abandoning a military garrison entirely, while ultimately the 53__rd__ Long Distance Colonization Fleet, Macross Horizon, had centered their entire Garrison Force on QF-4000 Ghost Fighters and _Caspar _Class Automated Stealth Frigates supplemented by a larger than usual SMS Branch. Therefore, High Command and the Parliament had no say in how the new colony organized its military forces. If they wanted to hand over their own defense to a Private Contractor, then that is their decision. _

\- Taken from the ending chapter of Journey To A New Home: Tales of the Vajra War, an E-Biography, written by Rose Guryunesil, posted on the Galactic Network Story Junction on June 10, 2061

**-o-o-o-**

**Airspace over Frontier City  
****Terra Nova, Vajra Solar System  
****New Frontier Globular Cluster  
****September 17, 2061AD **

In the slowly brightening skies over the growing city of Frontier, a single figure could be seen in a military-issued EGP-03/05 Military EX-Gear Unit peacefully flying over the city. This figure flew over the expansive Ranshe Mei Memorial Park and Nature Preserve that dominated the center of the ever-expanding city, the rebuilt and vastly expanded Shibuya Shopping District right on the waterfront of the Aimo Inland Sea, and curved slightly to follow the waterfront right over the large Aimo Sea Marina before flying over the New Francisco Residential District which become a significant housing development with not only small singular homes but also large houses with plenty of room since the city had the space for such large houses after all. Indeed, the city of Frontier was becoming quite larger than how it was onboard the _Island One_ City Ship using the new space afforded to them on a new planet to expand the city vastly while also allowing the natural beauty of the planet to make an appearance. It indeed became the overall central city of the entire colony and housed a population of roughly four million souls.

However while the beautiful views of the city was on the mind of the figure, one Captain Alto Saotome of the Strategic Military Services elite 1st Variable Fighter Group and commander of its lead Skull Team, he instead was more focused on the feeling of flying in such an open sky without worrying about the city's protective dome getting in the way. Alto could not get over the sheer openness of a planet's sky, therefore, made a point to at least once a week to go out for a flight around the city. Even after around two years of having lived on the planet, the idea of flying in a planet's sky like this thrilled him to no end. He could only smile in the sheer pleasure of it. As he smiled, he looked down just in time to see the expanded form of his old school Mihoshi Academy coming up underneath him. Already he could see a couple dozen figures in more civilian EX-Gear Units practicing out on the vastly expanded duel-flight deck that dominated the top of the primary school building. The old VF-1 Valkyrie figure that topped the school building back on _Island One_ was still there, but now it was joined by several demilitarized VF-171EX Nightmare Plus Variable Fighters, which allowed the Academy to serve as a junior flight academy for future Valkyrie pilots. From there they could get more advanced flight training at the military academy across the Aimo Sea at Landing City. All of which allowed Nova Terra and its SMS Nova Terra Defense Force to produce far superior Valkyrie pilots in the end.

Alto sighed at this as he watched as a pair of the Nightmare fighters were spotted on the flight decks catapults while several figures in EX-Gear were getting ready to launch from the smaller person-sized catapults on the opposite flight deck. It was about to get very busy in this airspace, and with a slight adjustment of the wings of his EX-Gear, he went on a heading towards the distant New Folmo City on the opposite side of the Kridanik Mountains, to get out of the flight lines of the launches from the Academy.

As he did so, Alto snorted in some amusement at the idea of New Folmo, for initially, it was a mall and shopping area on the doomed _Island Three_ Auxiliary City Ship, which served both giant-sized Zentradi and regular-sized humans. Now it was vastly expanded into a full-on city for full-sized Zentradi with some limited accommodations for regular-sized humans. Something that was seldom done for Zentradi were often required to miclonize to enter more civilian areas of a colony. A population of several thousand full-sized Zentradi and Zentradi descent humans comfortably lived in the small city. It also now served as the overall agriculture capital of the planet. Due to this, the city was now surrounded by vast unending fields of grain, wheat, corn, and other various types of farming products along with several tiny ranch communities. It took a bit longer than most of the colony construction, but now they could sell their access product to nearby colony fleets while still able to feed the new colony's residents.

With a shake of his head, the young Valkyrie pilot was now over the new Griffin Mountain Observatory Facility established on one of the tallest mountains of the Kridanik Mountains when suddenly the powerful communication suite built into his EX-Gear started to chirp for his attention. He blinked in some surprise at this, for it was quite rare to have someone calling him during one of his flights for one he was off duty and two basically everyone that knew him knew that he flew around this time. With a sigh and a practiced eye flick, he opened the communication line.

"Saotome here go ahead," he nearly barked into his helmet's microphone. As he started mentally going through anything that could have someone call him like this.

"Sorry to disturb you, Captain, but Colonel Lee needs you back at base ASAP," came the calm and collected voice of Senior Lieutenant Claire Stanford, the senior watch officer at the Defense Force Headquarters. He blinked at this before adjusting his course on a heading to take him back towards Frontier City and through that over the Aimo Sea towards the Landing City Military Reserve on the opposite bank from Frontier City. Landing City surrounded the large Howard Glass Memorial Spaceport that was backed up against the Aimo Sea while the Military Reserve was several miles inland.

"I don't recall any meetings or anything on the schedule this morning, Lieutenant. Any clue on what is going on here?" he asked the young woman who he remembered as being one of the fangirls of his deceased friend Michael Blanc back at Mihoshi Academy. He sighed sadly at the thought of his dead friend killed protecting his childhood friend and secret love Captain Klan Klang as she was in a Zentradi Resizing Chamber in preparation for her joining in the defense of the _Island One _City Ship when a massive swarm of Vajra managed to infiltrate the city-ship.

"You are correct sir there was nothing on the schedule outside of the general threat briefing later this afternoon. Even then, Captain, Colonel Lee has both Director Wilder and the President with her currently," she replied a moment later making Alto's eyebrows raise in some surprise at that for that was quite rare having both Director Jeffery Wilder the overall commander in charge of the now expanded SMS Nova Terra Defense Force which was now generally reasonable for the total defense of the colony and Chelsea Scarlet the new president of the Terra Novan Government. He was aware that the new President was quite young in her mid-twenties and had immigrated to the Frontier Fleet a couple of years before the Vajra War after a somewhat successful career as a Vanquish Racer. She had quickly become a member of the Frontier Parliament representing the Resort Island of _Island Seven _after someone had convinced her to join the race for the seat. After the end of the war she had one of the few Frontier Government Politicians that hadn't been involved in the shady dealings of Leon Mishima, or some other form of corruption found out by the investigations that were done after the end of the war which saw her rapidly becoming one of the leading contenders for the first President of the Nova Terran Government.

"Okay. Something must be up then. Anyways Lieutenant let them know I am on my way back to base," he replied as he once more flew over the Aimo Sea Marina which was started to take in several early morning fishing boats and a few of the Aimo Sea Ferries which routinely traveled between Frontier City and Landing City. He also spied the _Uraga _Class Fleet Carrier _Nimitz_, one of the colony's few remaining heavy fleet carriers, moored right off the Marina. As he flew over the Marina, he could see several VF-171 Nightmare Plus fighters of the Defense Force's Reserve Unit being prepped for launch on the carrier's flight deck, which made him frown in some concern for something was definitely up that would see the weekend warriors of the Reserve being called up.

"Understood, sir," Lieutenant Stanford replied before signing off from the communication channel. Alto nodded at this before turning his attention to avoiding the flight lines into the Spaceport and started to lower his altitude a bit as he flew over the edges of the medium-sized city that surrounded the spaceport. Landing City, unlike Frontier City which had been pretty much transferred over from the damaged _Island One _City Ship, was entirely built from scratch using recycled material from taking apart _Island One _along with a few of the more damaged Auxiliary City Ships and mainly sported services for the Spaceport plus the nearby sizeable military base. A few minutes later, the Landing City Military Reserve could be seen by the young Captain as his attitude started to lower even more. The massive military port and base facility was the main headquarters of the vastly expanded SMS Nova Terra Defense Force, which was now reasonable for the overall defense of the new Colony thanks mainly to the old New United Nations Spacy Garrison Force losing the trust and faith of the civilian population. It was something that happened after the result of the after-war investigations were released to the public.

The Reserve sported its own large spaceport facility, which had dozens of large ship berths able to dock up large battleships like the _Battle _Class Space Attack Carrier though it wasn't as busy as the large orbital space station that mainly served as the colony's leading military shipyard and dock facility. These ground side docks were used mostly to support the orbital station. No, what really made the Reserve one of the primary military bases on the planet was the massive airfield that sported a couple of dozen sizeable domed hangar facilities, which collectively housed many squadrons of variable fighters and destroids. It also included numerous other supporting facilities like barracks, storage warehouses, smaller hangars, communication buildings, offices, and other notable support facilities.

A few moments later, Alto came to a smooth landing on a dedicated small landing pad set aside for EX-Gear equipped soldiers when they needed somewhere to land safely. He blinked in some surprise at the figure waiting for him at the Landing Pad Major Klan Klang, the new overall commander of the SMS Nova Terra Branch's 1st Variable Fighter Group replacing Major Ozma Lee who had retired to be a stay-at-home dad to his one-year-old baby boy. Klan had changed quite a bit since the war from both the death of the man she loved during the war and the changes done to her thanks to the service of a notable Zentradi geneticist onboard the _Macross Olympia _Colony Fleet who had somewhat fixed the quirk in her genes that had her turn into a child-size miclone when she miclonized. She was still short coming out at five feet five inches, but she no longer looked like a child.

"Major Klang, did the Colonel send you to make sure I make it to this mysterious meeting?" he asked as he started to remove the EX-Gear. The blue-haired Meltran only rolled her eyes at this before moving to help him remove the powered suit.

"No, Captain Princess, I saw you come for a landing and figured I say hi to my friend," Klan mentioned, almost sarcastically making him flinch slightly. Another thing that changed with Klan was that she had taken up the Princess nickname given to him by Michael, which she only used with him when they were alone or off duty. She also became a close friend of his thanks to their mutual sadness over the loss of Michael.

"Sorry, Klan. I just a bit out of it, I guess with this meeting," Alto mentioned as he started to place the parts of his EX-Gear into its case, which he had left on the pad when he had taken off for his flight earlier in the morning.

"It's all right Alto, I understand for this meeting is quite mysterious," she replied with a wave of her hand at him and a small smile on her face. Alto only nodded at this before closing the storage case and extending its handle, allowing him to pull the case behind him as he started to walk towards the nearby small parking lot where his vehicle awaited him. He smiled when he saw it for, upon his nineteenth birthday, he was presented with this 2048 Renault Valkyrie Roadster by his friends in SMS. Like all the Valkyrie Roadsters, it was stylized to resemble a Variable Fighter with the 2048 model had been based on the VF-19 Excalibur, but for this vehicle, it had been customized to resemble the VF-25 Messiah instead. He once again could only shake his head and smile at the car before placing the EX-Gear storage container in the specially built trunk of the vehicle. Then with a click of a button on his remote, the car was locked once more, and with that done he turned back to Klan, who looked at him with an amused expression on her face.

"Okay, let's get going ma'am," he said to her ignoring her amused expression and waving at the nearby Headquarters building where he was sure the meeting would be taking place.

"Yes, Captain, let's go then," Klan said, sliding into her role as the commander of one of the most elite variable fighter units on the planet. Alto then took his place at her right and a step behind as they walked towards the headquarters building.

**-o-o-o-**

**Main Briefing Room  
****Headquarters Building  
****Landing City Military Reserve **

About twenty minutes later found Klan and Alto walking into the main briefing room of the building to see that the place was nearly full much to their combined surprise. They expected the forms of Colonel Catherine Lee, the commander of the SMS _Macross Quarter _and field commander, Director Jeffery Wilder, the overall commander in charge of the SMS Nova Terra Defense Forces and commander of the SMS _Battle Frontier_ flagship of the colony's defense force, and President Chelsea Scarlett, the head of the Nova Terran Colonial Government. What they did not expect was commanders from every SMS fighter squadron and ship currently on the planet to be attending the meeting. Trading surprised looks with one another, the two veteran pilots quickly moved to take their seats at the front of the room, not before trading salutes with the two senior officers and the president standing at the very front of the room. As he saluted Colonel Lee Alto eyed the woman trying to find some clue on what was going on, but the current commander of the _Quarter _gave no hints on what was going on her face or body language. He then sighed before taking his seat alongside Klan and leaned slightly to the side to look at the stern figure of his fellow Captain in the 1st Variable Fighter Group, Brera Stern, commander of Antares Team.

"You know what in the world is going out here, Brera?" he whispered to the other man who could only silently shake his head in answer before turning attention to the front of the room, waiting for the start of the briefing room making Alto sigh. Since while the combat cyborg pilot had changed a bit since the war and regaining his memories, he was still a bit cold, especially to him due to Alto currently dating his sister Ranka. Not to mention, he was even colder and stand-offish when on duty. Therefore, Alto really shouldn't be surprised at the man's simple response.

"It has to be something major to call everybody together like this Captain Saotome," came a voice from behind him, making Alto turn slightly to see Captain Gary Murdoch, commander of SMS Apollo Squadron. A man that Alto barely knew since he, like the rest of Apollo, had been transferred to Nova Terra from the _Macross Olympia _SMS Branch to help supplement the remaining NUNS, and SMS forces of the Frontier Fleet after the end of the war left them weakened.

"You think it's another Uncultured Zentradi incursion?" asked an unknown man sitting next to Fernando wearing the uniform of a ship captain. Alto figured him to be another transfer since he still wore the more NUNS-like Naval Uniform then the SMS uniform. Klan looked over at him with a frown at this question but just sighed and shrugged in answer for it was a very real possibility.

"God, I hope not the _Battle Frontier _is still in drydock thanks to the last incursion," a young woman mentioned from further in the second row of the briefing room. Alto quickly recognized her as the second in command of the _Battle Frontier_ and was often called to command the ship with Director Wilder commanded the overall fleet. He flinched at the reminder of the mentioned Zentradi Incursion, which had a small fleet of several Zentradi Battleships, five Zentradi carriers, and a dozen or so Zentradi Pickets supported by a trio of Zentradi Monitors suddenly appearing in the system. Usually, such a small fleet wouldn't be that much trouble for the colony's defenses, but due to still rebuilding from the Vajra War and a few surprises on the part of the Zentradi, the orbital defense fleet got mauled heavily in the fighting. While a few Zentradi dropships managed to make through the fleet and land a small force of Battle Pods on the surface of the planet. Thankfully the Variable Fighter Squadrons managed to quickly engage the Pods, which prevented much damage to any of the civilian infrastructure. It had been Alto's first time fighting against Uncultured Zentradi, and it was an experience he did not enjoy at all.

"Alright, everyone settle down now! This briefing shall begin in just a moment," came the gruff voice of Director Wilder, quietening the assembled officers and pilots. Then with a nod, he waved Colonel Lee to take his place at the podium at the front of the room.

"You are assembled here to be briefed on a curious mystery that has suddenly dropped into our laps," she started off, making Alto blink in some surprise before leaning forward slightly in curiosity.

"Late last night, a _Courier _Class Fold Transport was attacked and destroyed on its way to Nova Terra from the _Megaroad-09 _Fleet. It was transporting a dozen or so Protoculture Artifacts from a series of ruins that the _Megaroad-09 _had recently discovered on an airless moon in the Aios Solar System. Due to not having the facilities nor properly trained personnel to analyze the artifacts they sent them to Nova Terra where we could more easily analyze them," the Colonel began making a few of the officers look a bit confused. Alto blinked in some surprise himself for if he remembered right the _Courier _Class Fold Transport was heavily based on an earlier inter-system freighter design that transported the needed resources from the distant mining colonies and Earth before the start of Space War I. Years later one of the early colonization fleets used tat sub-light design to develop a new design, the _Courier_, to help in carrying extra cargo and supplies for the colony fleet. Now with many different colonies and colony fleets out in space, the _Courier _became a popular sight on the trade routes in between them all.

"This attack had been done with a few unknown ships that had some sort unknown pin-point fold drive that allowed the ships to pretty much jump within a few kilometers of the transport and its escorts, a pair of older Block C _Northampton _Class Frigates from the _Megaroad-09 _Defense Fleet. The ships fired numerous missiles at the transport and its escorts, destroying several patrolling Nightmare fighters that been launched earlier. The resulting battle saw the destruction of the transport, and its two escorts floating wrecks. While much of their combined complement of fighters either heavily damaged or destroyed," the Colonel continued to explain as several holographic screens around her started to show images from the battle. Alto frowned at the images seeing these unknown attackers sporting some sort of large carrier like ship that almost looked like a star with two Y-shaped hull shapes connected to one another. He raised an eyebrow in surprise when he saw one of holographic screen showing that one of these large ships jumping close to one of the frigates before unleashing a huge broadside of missiles at the smaller ship tearing it apart. Another screen showed the last of the frigates be hit by several larger missiles that overwhelmed the ship's barriers and armor. Meanwhile a few of the watching officers could only gasp in some surprise for such a Fold was almost unheard of and with such precision was impossible in modern space combat tactics. Others like Alto where surprised and shocked at the scenes being played on the screens. Colonel Lee waved her hand, and the holographic screens disappeared and was about to continue her briefing when she was interrupted.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but didn't the escorts pick up the attackers before they folded in? Also, what about the stealth on those frigates and their Valkyries shouldn't that prevent them from locking on to launch those missiles?" the unknown officer sitting pretty much behind Alto asked, making a few other naval officers in the audience look up in some interest and others with some panicked looks. Colonel Lee only looked at him for a moment trading looks with Director Wilder briefly before sighing and turning her attention back to the officer.

"No, Major. Neither the Transport nor the Escorts were able to pick up the unknown attackers before they Folded In. As for our stealth, our analysts are still going through the data," she replied making the audience now outright looking shocked and a bit scared of this answer. For with Cross Dimensional Radar it was quite easy to pick up ships entering or exiting a fold giving some warning on what was coming. If these unknowns were able to Fold In without a single peep from the Cross Dimensional Radar, then the colony, really any colony or fleet of the New United Nations Government, were not safe from these new attackers. Not to mention every modern ship and Valkyrie sported some form of super dimensional stealth able to fool sensors and prevent an enemy from firing at them from super long-range like what happened during Space War I with the Earth Orbital Fleet.

"However, I want to point out before anyone outright panics that these ships where all older models of the _Megaroad-09 _Colony Fleet; hence our ships equipped more advanced Cross Dimensional Radar may be able to pick up something from these unknowns. Not to mention our stealth features are far more advanced as well," the Colonel mentioned, which made a few of the naval officers in the audience sigh in some relief and nod in agreement. Alto nodded as well since he knew from his military studies after he joined SMS that the Block C _Northampton _Class was around thirty or so years old having been introduced in the early 2030s a few years after the class itself was started to be introduced by the New United Nations Spacy and its Colonial Garrisons. In fact, the Bloc Cs were developed for the sole use of the Colonial Garrisons of the new colonies, and the colony fleets themselves. Hence it most likely didn't have the latest model of Cross Dimensional Radar, which was now augmented by tiny bits of Fold Quartz built into its receivers.

"Anyways, the result of this brief battle was soon discovered by the _Macross Quarter _and its escorts for we had been sent by the President to escort the transport back to Nova Terra. We managed to recover the survivors of the battle and recover much of the transport's cargo," she continued on, making Alto sit up in some surprise before exchanging a brief look of shock with Klan. It was quite rare to see the _Quarter _to be sent on a mission without the 1st onboard. Though he noticed that the other officers in the briefing room were also surprised, and it wasn't about the _Quarter _being deployed.

"Yes. That is what really mysterious about this for the remainder of these unknown attackers had a few minutes of uninterrupted access to the wreck of the Transport before we arrived and it didn't even try to recover any of the ship's cargo," the Colonel said looking over the briefing room making Alto once again look on in some surprise for he had jumped right to the surprise of the _Quarter _being deployed without the veteran 1st onboard and not notice that the Colonel had mentioned about the cargo. Since that was the most surprising for Protoculture Artifacts were quite a big thing to be carrying around, which meant that these attackers either did not know about Protoculture or they just did not care about it.

"I now pass the briefing back to the Director," the Colonel said, stepping down from the podium, letting the Director to once again take the stage sort of speak.

"The battle data recovered from the wrecked transport and its escort are still being analyzed as we speak, but for now, I am ordering the Defense Forces to Alert Level Two. We are also going to be preparing to build a defensive line around the colony and the Vajra System in case this is the start of a full-on attack by these unknowns," the older man explained, making more than one of the gathered naval officers nod in some agreement.

"However, what we really need is further data on these unknowns. Hence, we are going to be sending out small forces to scout around the nearby systems to where this attack happened to see about discovering anything notable about our new enemy," the man continued on before looking over the gathered officers with his stern gaze before with a wave of his hand a few holographic windows popped up around him. He then started to pass out individual orders to several officers for several minutes before suddenly focusing on Klan, Alto, and Brera.

"Major Klang you and your Group will be assigned to the SMS _Gefion _under the command of Major Blanchett where you will scout out these systems along with any further investigation at the attack site itself," he ordered flicking a holographic window over to Klang and another to a pink-haired young Meltran officer in the row above them that Alto knew to be Major Aisha Blanchett, captain of a Block E/S _Northampton _Class Frigate who received the flicked holographic windows via their own data pads.

Alto looked thoughtful at these orders, for he was quite aware that while every single _Northampton _Class Frigate could carry variable fighters, this often was only a single squadron of twelve planes though during wartime this was often increased to eighteen to twenty planes depending on variant. The Bloc E Variant of the class was different in that it was purposely developed to carry variable fighters as a sort of light carrier, able to carry two squadrons of fighters and in a pinch able to carry over thirty fighters. This saw the SMS commissioning the construction of their own version of the variant which became the Bloc E/S variant during its early days as a transport escort company which added a pair of dedicated catapult decks flanking the ship, plus a slight rearrangement of the ship's hangar allowing the use of the catapults. A few other additions included a few extra point defense guns, the removal of a couple of the secondary particle beam cannon turrets to make room for the catapults, and a few minor changes to the ship's hull. All of which allowed the new variant to be quite an escort carrier capable of launching and recovering fighters at the same time while also still being able to launch a devasting anti-ship attack.

"Alto! Come on, we needed to get our fighters loaded on the _Gefion_. I already called the others to report to the hangar," came Klan's voice jolting him from his thoughts. Alto blinked at this and looked up to find that much of the room had started to clear while he was in the middle of his thoughts on the _Gefion _since he never really had served onboard a _Northampton _Class before now. He sighed at this before turning to see that Klan had moved to talk to Major Blanchett while Brera was talking quietly with an unfamiliar female officer next to the Major wearing a naval uniform. At Klan's comment Brera turned and stared at him with the same cold expressionless face, but that slight tilt of his head was basically a snort of amusement from the man. The four officers then headed for the exit of the briefing room.

"Understood ma'am," he called out and got up to follow them when Colonel Glass intercepted him.

"Captain Saotome, I need a quick word with you," she ordered with a jerk of her head towards a side alcove, making Alto sigh, wondering if she was going to yell at him and moved to follow behind the woman.

"Since Major Klang was quick to get to talk to Major Blanchett, I didn't get a chance to talk with her before she moved to leave," the commander of the _Quarter _mentioned making Alto blink in some surprise at this statement.

"I needed to explain that since the Director and the President wanted to keep the escort mission on the down-low, we didn't have the 1st Flight Group be loaded on board before we left. Since if we did, someone might have noticed that both the _Quarter _and the 1st Flight Group had been deployed for some strange reason. They may have overlooked the deployment of one but not both. I protested but was overruled by the Director saying that our regular complement of fighters would be quite enough for the mission," she explained which Alto nod in some understanding for that did make some sense for both the 1st Flight Group, mostly Skull, and the _Quarter _was quite famous due to their role in the war. Having both of them being deployed at the same time without any announcement would make a few figures in the still-new Terra Nova government a bit nervous.

"Also, with the _Battle Frontier _still in drydock, we need to keep the _Quarter _at home to anchor and lead the defensive line," she continued on, making Alto once again nod in understanding for he had kind of expected that in the scheme of things.

"Understood Colonel, I shall pass on your words to the Major," he replied to her with a salute making her smile lightly at him before returning it. Alto then turned to leave but was stopped by the Colonel saying his name making him turn to look at her in some confusion.

"Good luck out there and bring them all home, or Ozma will never forgive you," she mentioned with a smirk on her face making Alto roll his eyes with a laugh and a wave at her before he left the briefing room behind him. A quick thought had him fishing his mobile phone out of his pocket for speaking of Ozma he really should call his girlfriend to let her know he was being deployed.

**-o-End-o-**

**Post Chapter Notes**

Well, folks! That is the official first chapter! We get a lot of information in this chapter on what is going on with everything. Granted, it was still a bit of an info dump, which I really need to stop doing with my stories. Sigh. Anyways. Yet I figured I give you all Frontier fans a sort of bird's-eye view of the new colony, which explains the first scene. I also thought Alto would the type of character to go for a morning flight around the colony when he could get away with it. I imagine Frontier City looks kind of like how the city looked in the movies just expanded due to being on a planet and having more room. Basically, that tiered look with a large Central Park-like piece of nature in the middle of the city. While Landing City is where we see the Frontier Colonists starting to assemble a temporary settlement at the end of the Second Movie. Frontier City is the central city of the colony and its capital, Landing meanwhile is the tourist/military city thanks to the nearby military base and the spaceport at its center.

That said. Those readers with keen eyes and a good sense of Macross canon will most likely notice that I am using characters from some of the Macross games. The most evident would be Aisha Blanchette from Macross 30, who is the captain of the _Gefion_, of which I have given a more thorough explanation in this chapter and one of the main characters of the game. Some readers may ask what about Ouroboros well I am going to be using that planet in my story since I really don't want to include whatever is going on with that planet in my story right now. Not to mention the way that game does its time travel is not something I like, which is another reason I am not using it. That said, I do like characters in the game's story. Therefore, you can expect more characters from the game to make an appearance. One is going to be seen at the start of the very next chapter.

Originally this chapter was going to be a bit longer, but I was having some issues writing the next scene. Therefore, I figured I should just split the chapter into two smaller chapters since I did promise another one for this story after all. In the next chapter, we will see the other pilots of the new Skull Team and a look at the rest of the SMS 1st Variable Fighter Group before ending with the launching of the _Gefion_. I don't know if the other chapters are going to remain this short, but I will try to keep them coming as fast as I can.

One last thing before I finish these notes. You may notice that I slipped in who Alto's love interest is during a few bits of this chapter. For those Sheryl fans, I am sorry, but in this Alto is paired with Ranka not that I don't like Sheryl, but Ranka, I think is a better match for Alto in my mind. Sheryl sometimes comes off as a mirror of Minmei during the last episodes of the original series. So please no raging over my decision about this for this relationship won't be a significant point in this story.

Alright. Sigh. There were a few other things I wanted to say about this chapter, but if I did then these notes would most likely be longer than the chapter itself. I really need to stop these long-ass notes. Anyways that is about it for now. I shall see you all when I post the first chapter of the second story of this set, **Journey Along The Stars**. Tell then!


	3. Interlude 01: The Other Side

**Interlude 01: The Other Side **

_This is Wraith Scout 2-5 reporting: we have detected an unknown fleet of several hundred vessels of several designs not previously encountered by the Cylons or the Twelve Colonies. I repeat these vessels are entirely unknown to us and the Colonials! The majority of the fleet we have tentatively identified as some sort of warship, about four different classes of ships, the remainder of the fleet appear to be all civilian ships of some kind with one large Battlestar-sized vessel that serves as the central ship of the fleet. Until we receive new orders, we shall continue to observe these unknowns. _

_\- _Taken from a Communication from a Cylon Wraith Scout Ship to Cylon Command Star  
Circa. 12.7.53 (Cylon Reckoning)

**-o-o-o-**

**Fifth Planet  
****System TX-1050 "Canaris"  
****Veil Sector  
****28.7.53 (Cylon Reckoning)  
****September 16, 2061AD (Earth Reckoning)**

Orbiting around an icy methane covered planet was a gathering of numerous ships. The majority of which are the large star-like Cylon Basestar while others where more for non-combat with several freighters and support vessels, including the cathedral-like Resurrection Ship that lay in the center of the gathered fleet. Numerous

Raiders Fighters and the larger Marauder Assault Craft patrolled around the assembled fleet keeping its near-space clear of any threat. In the well-lit command center of a slightly larger variant of the basic basestar the fleet's command staff gathered looking over the debriefing of the crews of the ships they had sent out to attack a small group of unknown vessels that had broken off from a much more extensive fleet of unknown ships they have been observing for the past few days. Ever since one of their Wraith Scout Ships stumbled onto the fleet a week ago in a nearby solar system.

"This is an outrage!" a human-like figure that looks like a human male in his mid-thirties growled removing his hand from the gel-like interface of the Command Center's central control station. While he looked like a human this figure was actually a human-form Cylon, of the line known as the Fives.

"Calm down Five," came a soothing voice from a second figure, this one looking like a tall, dark-skinned human removing their hand from the same interface. This figure was also a human-form Cylon, but of the line known as the Fours.

"We clearly underestimated these unknowns," a third more feminine voice said in some disgust as a third figure turned away from the control station to stare at a nearby wall with an angry snarl on her pretty face. This figure was a tall blond-haired female who likes her fellows is a human-form Cylon of the line known as the Sixes.

"Agreed. We never even realized that these Unknowns would possess some sort of directed energy weapon, advanced ECM jamming that can spoof our missiles, and finally some sort of energy barrier technology. Not to mention the already observed Active Stealth Technology which jams our DRADIS Screens to a limited degree," a fourth voice calmly stated looking thoughtful as their hand remained in the interface to continue to mentally go over the DRADIS Readings and Video Recordings were taken from the two remaining Basestars of the Attack Fleet. This figure was another male Cylon human-form though shorter than the other two and a bit older with a receding hairline. This Cylon was from the line known as the Ones. They had planned how to deal with the ship's weird active stealth that fuzzed up their DRADIS Screens, and a few other minor things but they really didn't plan on the directed energy weapons nor the very advanced ECM Jamming.

"We wanted to know about these unknowns and how that weird FTL they possess works. Therefore, we sent in a force to attack a smaller convoy of ships we detected to bring in samples of this new technology and prisoners. In the end the hand we tried to greedily steal something from these unknowns that got our reaching hand bit and hard," the One Cylon mused out loud as he continued to study the readings in his mind. He was most intrigued by the unknown's transforming fighters, which turned from a large fighter craft to a tall Centurion-like figure and back. They had detected these fighters with the larger main fleet but they didn't manage to see them transforming like this in the limited observation they had done on the fleet.

"Well, we did manage to beat them. In the end, we can still see about attacking the unknown's main fleet with our gathered forces," the Five retorted, staring at the bulkhead near him, not noticing the surprised and horrified look of Six while Four just stared at Five in some disbelieve and One remained at the Control Console going over the Video Recordings frame-by-frame. He also didn't notice the narrowed eyes of the fifth figure in the command center, who hadn't said anything just yet.

"Are you crazy, Five! You saw those DRADIS Scans and the Vid-Recordings! Yes, we managed we defeat these two warships and what looks to be some sort of transport or at least some sort of support ship. They still managed to destroy two Basestars and damage another two while destroying the vast majority of those ship's Raider Complement and the half-dozen Marauders accompanying the attack force. If we tried to attack the main fleet with our gathered forces here, we would be slaughtered!" Six replied with a shake of her head at the other Cylon. Five simply sniffed and waved his hand at her in irritation.

"We cannot die Six. We just have the Resurrection Ship remain here with a suitable escort and our support ships. Then we launch constant attacks on the fleet to whittle down their numbers while also trying to capture samples of their technology for study while also maybe capturing some prisoners as well. Also, yes, I did see those scans and vids you mentioned which is why I did notice we have far superior tactical mobility with our FTL Drives. Not to mention, it seems like their fighters did not possess this unknown FTL of theirs while our Raiders and Marauders do," Five explained in far more calm-like voice. Six stared at him in sheer surprise before snorting and shaking her head at his plan.

"Oh. You just want to send a constant flow of our ships to attack these unknowns. Have you considered that they may end up capturing examples of our own technology that they can study and reverse-engineer it to use against us or God forbid they capture one of us which they use to discover what makes us tick. Also, if you actually did study the earlier video recordings from Wraiths 2-5 and 3-9, you have noticed that a couple of this support ships they have seem to be some sort of Factory Ship or at least a mobile shipyard which managed to produce more of their ships. I have some news for you Five we don't have anything like that to replace the ship losses we may suffer in the battle. We would have to request new ships from the Colony which would see the Command Council and maybe even the Imperious Leader themselves to get involved in what we have been doing out here," Six explained with gritted teeth as she stared at the short man. The other Cylons had been watched the argument in some amusement, at least all but One who had moved on to study the mentioned recordings from the Wraith Scouts. He easily found the recordings of the suspected Factory Ship Six had mentioned and watched in some interest as a ship of the same class they had tried to ambush exited the bottom of the vessel.

"If I may interrupt this fascinating conversation, but I feel the need to mention that the Imperious Leader had our fleet organized to hunt down Gerald Cain's Fleet of Colonial Refugees and find out what his plans are with his constant jumping around. Then when we found that out, we are to destroy Cain's Fleet before it could somehow end up meeting with the _Galactica _Fleet that is making trouble for the First Fleet. We were not ordered to investigate these unknowns at all and it was only witnessing this new FTL method that saw our interest in investigating along with the attack on the detached force," Four calmly stated looking over at his two fellow Cylons in some mild displeasure. Six nodded at Four, while Five angrily turned to stare at Four with a snarl on his lips. However, before he could say anything in response the so-far silent fifth figure suddenly moved up from a throne-like pedestal at the opposite end of the Command Center.

"Enough!" this figure bellowed out in some anger walking down the short stairs leading to the floor of the Command Center. This figure, like Six, was a female but had a completely different skin tone and sported dark brown hair that was longer than Six's blond locks. Like the other four in the Command Center, she was a human-form Cylon though from the line known as Eights, but unlike her fellows, she was different from being one of the Primus of the Imperious Leader, the overall leader in charge of the Cylon Empire. She was overall in total control of the gathered Cylon Forces in this sector of space, the Second Fleet of the Cylon Empire. At her appearance, Five shrank back from the woman while Six and Four bowed their heads as she approached the Center Console. A pair of golden-plated robotic Centurions followed her down the stairs with their single red eye sweeping back and forth in silence. They stood quietly, guarding the back of the Eight.

"These Unknowns have made me quite curious, but still Six, you are quite correct that we can't just simply attack them with brute force for we would get slaughtered. We also cannot let Cain's Fleet get ahead of us either," the Eight said, looking between the three human-form Cylons standing around the Central Console before turning her eyes to the One with his hand still on the Console's interface.

"What is your suggestion Legate One? For so far you haven't made it known to your Brothers and Sister," she asked the man who looked up from the console with a thoughtful look on his face as he finally removed his hand from the interface and turned with a bowed head to the Eight. While not as favored with the Imperious Leader as the Primus he was trusted enough to command a ship like this Command Basestar.

"The Unknowns and their technology are quite fascinating. I would love to study any captured examples. Using what we learn from the captured samples of their technology, we could easily overpower any other threat we would face. Like whoever destroyed the civilization we found on the second planet of this system. That said, we can't let a man like Gerald Cain slip away from us, or he may be a problem for us later on," the One mentioned with a hum and rubbing his chin in some thought before nodding and looking back up at the Eight.

"I believe we should continue observing the Unknown's Fleet for any further smaller force leaving the safety of the larger main fleet. Now that we have a better idea of their capabilities, we can more easily overpower them and capture examples of this new technology to study. While we do that, we shall also continue to observe Cain's Fleet see what he has planned. We do have plenty of Wraiths after all," One said, making the Eight nod with a pleased look on her face and turning to look at the other three Cylons.

"Then that is what we shall do. Make it so," the Eight said, moving back to her throne while the other four Cylons bowed their head low to her while the two Centurions remained standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the throne.

"By your Command Primus Lilith," the four said in near unison as she sat back down in her throne with a superior look on her face. With that done, the throne started to lower into the floor and away from the Command Center leaving behind the two golden Centurions who continued to silently watch the other Cylons. Her orders were soon passed to the rest of the gathered Cylon Fleet, and several of the small dark-colored Wraith Scout Ships broke away from the fleet, disappearing in flashes of light as they jumped away. The rest of the fleet continued to hold a silent orbit over the cold and frigid world beneath them.

-o-End-o-

**Post Chapter Notes**

I know I mentioned I was going to be working on the other story of this set but after reading some responses from you all about why the Cylons attacked the ships in the Prelude without any reason I decided to go ahead with my plan of writing out a short interlude chapter that explores the Cylons mindset a bit and why in the world they ended up attacking an utterly unknown group of ships. It boils down to merely being greedy in that they found the _Megaroad-09 _Colony Fleet and covertly witnessed a ship's Folding. This gets worse when they see the weapon and defense tech of the NUNS when they attack a small force of NUNS ships that broke away from the main fleet.

As for the Cylons, I kind of reimagined them a bit in this story and the series itself. Something I kind of got from the end of the Miniseries was that while the Cylons now looked like humans they still had some sort hierarchy in place with the gathered Cylons at Ragnar turning to the approaching Eight and saying the famous: "By Your Command," line. The following series didn't really follow up with that little tidbit and kind of made the Cylons a bit of joke in the sense of a command hierarchy. With a sort of democratic style of command that often backfired on them totally throughout the series. Not to mention the different Cylon Lines arguing with one another when things did not go their way.

Therefore, with this story, I am changing things, since I am the author and I can do what I want with this story. First, I have reintroduced the Imperious Leader to the Cylons who is the overall supreme leader of the Cylons, we won't really see them all that much, and then we have the Primus who are the favored of the Imperious Leader. The Primus is the front-line commanders of the Cylon, and due to their status with the Imperious Leader, they have received individual names instead of just simply known by a number designation. In fact, there is no difference which Cylon Line the Primus comes from, and no Primus is above another Primus. They only answer to the Imperious Leader. So, our Primus Lilith here in this chapter is an Eight, but due to her being a Primus the rest of the Cylons in this fleet have to follow her orders or risk getting Boxed for their troubles. Meanwhile, the next rank down from the Primus is the two Legate ranks first the Legate Pilus, who are the overall ship commanders and second the Legate Dux, who are the commanders of a Centurion Cohort. The Legates are always human-form Cylons who have gained the trust of the Imperious Leader to be a leader.

Since another thing I found I didn't like with the Series was that outside of the Raider, Heavy Raider, Basestar, Resurrection Ship, and maybe a couple of support ships, the Cylon Fleet was kind of a one-trick pony. Therefore, for this story, the Cylon Fleet have a few more ships, the first being the Marauder which is a heavy assault unit/bomber, then we have the Wraith which is stealth capable Scout Ship, and finally the Command Basestar which is a slightly larger version of the regular Basestar. Both the Marauder and the Wraith are from the Battlestar Galactica Online game though the Wraith is actually the Spectre just with DRADIS-Absorbing Hull and a hefty ECM Suite.

Speaking of the Wraith you may wonder how in the world it is able to keep a Macross Fleet under observation when such a Fleet would have advanced Cross Dimensal Radar and such system that could detect any sort of a ship that is trying to keep hidden while silently watching the Fleet. For one like mentioned the Wraith sports DRADIS absorbing hulls like the Blackbird from the Series and two has DRADIS jamming equipment plus other sorts of equipment to make such a ship a very good stealth ship. However, one major way these ships are able to sneak around is that they would jump into a solar system into some sort of dead spot like the poles of the system's star, or jump away from the system before turning off all notable equipment like engines and just drift into the system.

That is about it for this small interlude. I hope I didn't confuse or upset you all about the changes I have made to the Cylons. I wanted to make them a bit more of a threat to the NUNS but still not capable of fully facing off with a superior NUNS force. Now back to writing the other story!

**EDIT (11/8/2019): Fixed some issues pointed out to me and made some changes to make the chapter flow a bit better.  
**


	4. Chapter Two: Fate's Arrow

**Chapter 02: Fate's Arrow **

_The 1__st__ Variable Fighter Group is an elite variable fighter unit that serves as a front-line combat unit for the SMS Terra Nova Defense Forces. They are often assigned to overall defense of the colony but can be called on to be launched with the SMS _Macross Quarter_ or SMS _Battle Frontier_ when it is required. It is currently commanded by Major Klan Klang, a Meltrandi Pilot who commands the Pixie Team Sub-Unit. _

_While officially called a flight group, it is a reinforced fighter squadron with three individual sub-units. First, of course, there is Skull Team, of which Captain Alto Saotome now leads with the retirement of Ozma Lee, a pair of VF-25F Messiahs, and a single VF-25G Messiah. The other three fighters are flown by three other Vajra War veterans, one of which, First Lieutenant Shiro Mashida, had been under the Captain's command during the final battle over Terra Nova, another First Lieutenant Leon Sakai, had flown a regular VF-25A Messiah as a member of SMS Frontier Branch's Wolf Squadron, and the fourth, Second Lieutenant Miyuki Shirakawa, had been the pilot of a VF-171EX Nightmare Plus Valkyrie equipped with an SSL-9B Dragunov Anti-Armor Sniper Rifle who had been along the small percentage of Nightmare Plus pilots to make it through the battle alive. _

_Then there was Pixie Team, now flying their own Messiahs after the Macross Frontier Arsenal lost all their production capacity for the _Queadluun-Rhea/56_ Battle Suits with the destruction of the factories on Island 7 during the final battle of the war. Major Klang pilots her own VF-25S Messiah, Captain Nene Rora pilots a slightly modified VF-25F Messiah, First Lieutenant Angier Miyataka a Meltrandi ace pilot who pilots an experimental VF-25J Messiah which is basically an F-Type that sports the engines of a VF-27 Lucifer, and finally Second Lieutenant Sylvie Gena pilots a VF-25F Messiah. _

_Finally, there was the rebuilt Antares Team, who all fly the so-called VF-25y Messiah Gamma, or better known as the Pariah, variant, which was basically a YF-25 Prophecy Frame with several specially made parts that are from both the VF-22 Sturmvogel II and the VF-27 Lucifer. All the pilots of Antares had been cyborg soldiers from Macross Galaxy recovered from their damaged or destroyed fighters who either like the Captain had their control implants destroyed during the battle or surgically removed after the War by Macross Frontier medical personnel. They are Captain Motoko Kusanagi, who flies as Antares Two, First Lieutenant Akio Batou, who flies as Antares Three, and finally First Lieutenant David Saito, who flies as Antares Four. Unlike Brera Sterne, who had already proved himself in the battle, these other three pilots of Antares had been thoroughly questioned by both Macross Frontier military intelligence personnel and later when they arrived the Macross Olympia investigation unit. Since then they all have proved themselves in battle, especially the Zentradi Incursion a year ago, where they had taken out an entire Zentradi Battleship by themselves. _

_Together all three sub-units made up the 1__st__ Variable Fighter Group, which was often paired with the SMS _Macross Quarter_ when on deployments. That said, it also sported a couple of optional units that could be added when it was required. Including a pair of VB-6 Konig Monster units, Rabbit Team, commanded by Captain Canaria Bernstein, who continues to hold a reserve commission in the SMS Terra Nova Defense Force, and an RVF-25 Messiah Reconnaissance Fighter with a trio of AIF-7S Ghost Fighters escorts commanded by Captain Luca Angeloni who holds also holds a reserve commission in the SMS Terra Nova Defense Forces after his retirement from SMS. _

\- Taken from The Guardians of Nova Terra News Article, written by Hibiki Kanzaki for Frontier City Herald

**-o-o-o-**

**Hangar Facility 01  
****Landing City Military Reserve **

After a quick phone call with Ranka as he walked out of the headquarters building, Alto soon found himself strolling up to the large circular structure that is Hangar Facility Zero-One, which housed the 1st Variable Fighter Group when they were on the planet. Outside of the nearby Hangar Zero-Three several VF-25A Messiahs of the 3rd Variable Fighter Wing underwent some checks in preparation for deployment on the forming Defensive Line around the planet. Alto took a moment to observe the fighters and shook his head with a small smile for the new Terra Nova Defense Force sported almost entirely VF-25 Messiahs with only a few reserve squadrons still using the aging VF-171 Nightmare Plus fighters. All of this was thanks to the heavy presence of Fold Quartz on Terra Nova, allowing to produce Inertia Store Converters, which saw further construction of Fifth Generation Variable Fighters like the Messiah a reality. With a nod to the maintenance crews of those fighters Alto entered the expansive space that is Hangar Facility 01 and looked over the variable fighters gathered inside the hangar.

Around sixteen different VF-25 Messiahs were spread across the hangar floor, all in various variants and models, including a couple of experimental models. There was a trio of S-Models, including Alto's own fighter, painted in a similar scheme to Ozma's own just with red replacing the gold. Several F-Models made up much of the rest of the Group with a few prototype models. Then there was the quartet of VF-25y Messiah Gammas, or better known as Pariahs, which were basically YF-25 Prophecy prototype fighters made to VF-27 Lucifer specs that made up the new Antares Team. A single lonely VF-25S fighter stood off to one side, which remains as Ozma's fighter when he wanted to fly or for training purposes. Then finally a pair of VB-6 Konig Monsters graced the hangar along one wall where several techs where crawling all over one of the giant attack bombers tearing it down for some reason or another. This was the 1st Variable Fighter Group.

Alto could look on in some pride at this before moving towards his fighter set in the middle of a pair of VF-25F Messiahs and a single VF-25G Messiah. A trio of pilots was gathered under the wing of the nearest of the F-Models talking when he approached. They all braced to attention at his approach. This was the new Skull Team that Ozma and Alto had put together after the end of the war. First, there was Alto's second First Lieutenant Leon Sakaki, formerly of the SMS Wolf Squadron, who had piloted a regular VF-25A Messiah throughout the war. He was a couple of years older than Alto, but that didn't really mean anything to the two of them. Especially when Leon was a fun wisecracking person all-around. Though Alto still kind of hated the man for being part of the hazing initiation ritual he has been forced into after he first joined SMS. Then there is First Lieutenant Shiro Mashida, who had been one of the two men under Alto's command during the start of the final battle of the war piloting the new VF-171EX Nightmare Plus model fighter. He had been injured during the battle when a pair of V-9 Ghosts launched from the _Battle Galaxy _tore apart the mixed Nightmare unit he was flying with killing his wingmate and best friend in the process, Takashi Yamato. Leaving the poor man to float along with the debris in his EX-Gear before finally being recovered by a recovery team from the _Macross Quarter_. Finally, there was the sole female of the team, Second Lieutenant Miyuki Shirakawa, who had also piloted a VF-171EX throughout the final battle of the war where thanks to her experience in using the SSL-9B Dragunov Anti-Armor Sniper Rifle during that battle she received a VF-25G Messiah when she joined Skull Team. Miyuki was someone that Alto knew from Mihoshi Academy, having been part of the Aerospace Track alongside him and his friends. She, along several others in the aerospace track who had volunteered for military duty during the early stages of the war had been fast-tracked through training to replace the mounting losses in fighter pilots. She had graduated just in time for the final battle where she had managed to make it through the entire battle with little damage at all.

"Skipper! What's all this about I was on a date with this girl from accounting and the recall notice kind of spoiled it," moaned the figure of Leon making Alto smirk in some amusement at the man knowing that while he was a wise-cracking lady's man on the ground Leon was all business when in the air.

"Apparently, we have been called to investigate a mystery but wait till the Major briefs the rest of the Group," Alto replied to the man before looking over the other two pilots who could nod in understanding.

"Understood sir," the monotone voice of Lieutenant Mashida replied with a salute before turning to go over his fighter. This made Alto sigh in some sadness for the man had changed vastly since the final battle of the war. Losing his best friend and much of his family to the war had changed the man from the fun-loving pilot who had teased him about his relationship with Sherly.

"Oh, come on, Skipper, can't you let something spill to your main man," Leon said throwing an arm around Alto's shoulders making him sigh in some amusement at the older man, before remembering something from a past conversation with the man that made him smirk slightly.

"Well, we are going to be briefly assigned to the SMS _Gefion _for this mission. Say isn't that the ship that one of your ex-girlfriends serves on," he mentions almost casually and is rewarded with first the shocked look on the other man's face before it morphed to panic.

"Oh shit! That is not going to be good!" Leon mentioned before leaving the side of Alto and moaning over to his own fighter. Rolling his eyes at the man, Alto turned to look over at his final pilot to see her talking with a pair of mechanics about something or another nearby her own fighter. He nodded seeing her taking her reasonability as the Group's Maintenance Officer quite seriously. With the check on his pilots finished Alto headed for his own fighter to start his preflight inspection of the plane. He still couldn't believe he managed to receive such a fighter after losing his second VF-25F Fighter after the end of the war. The S-Model was quite different from the F-model of the Messiah having far better-tuned engines and some better weapons, including the quad-Mauler Laser Turret on the head. It was really a masterpiece of variable fighter engineering. Though from the rumors he heard there was currently a new variable fighter design in the works that built on the success of the Messiah, which would be vastly superior over that of the Messiah. It is said that when those new fighters are ready, the Skull Team would be the first to receive them. However, till that fighter was out of development the VF-25S was the best variable fighter on the planet sharing the spot with the VF-25y Messiah Gamma.

Shaking his head, Alto completed his walk-around inspection of the fighter and turned to find his plane captain silently waiting for him. He grinned slightly to himself at the short figure of Senior Warrant Officer Elizabeth Hailey approached him. Hailey had been one of the few close friends he had before the start of the war due him separating himself from his father. She had stuck with him after that helping him becoming independent and later joining him in Mihoshi Academy though she went into Aerospace Engineering Track due to her all-out love of Variable Fighter, which saw her becoming a Variable Fighter Maintenance Officer for SMS. When Alto had first joined the organization in the early days of the Vajra War, he had been quite surprised to find Hailey as the head of his plane's maintenance crew.

"Hailey, still lovely as ever I see," Alto mentioned nodding to the young woman's oil-smeared face that covered her pretty freckled face. She snorted in answer at that before eying the fighter with a frown and turned back to him.

"Alright Alto she is tuned up and ready but bring her back to me in one piece this time you hear," she mentioned with her fists clenched at her waist while she looked up at him with a glare and puffed up cheeks making Alto shake his head at her with a smile before it turned into a frown.

"You aren't coming with us on the _Gefion_?" he asked, surprised for the maintenance crews of the 1st Group often followed their planes when they were deployed. Hailey sighed and shook her head before thumbing over her shoulder at the paired Konig Monsters. Alto could see that another crew was now starting on the second Monster making him blink in some surprise at this.

"No. We need all hands on deck, for we are pretty much tearing apart the Monsters so a crew from LAI can upgrade them. Not to mention we are still spending time teaching the other crews on what to maintain Messiahs. They are completely a different beast from the Nightmares they are used too," Hailey mentioned with a sigh making Alto snort for with the general adoption of the VF-25 Messiah as the new primary fighter of the SMS Terra Nova Defense Force the former NUNS Maintenance Crews had to be taught from the ground up to maintain the far more advanced Messiah. Taking another look at the Monsters, Alto sighed, for he would miss having the firepower of those two crafts on this mission.

"Anyways, Hailey, I shall return this one to you intact, I promise," he said with a smile staring down at her, making her look up at him for a moment before nodding and turning away to bark orders to her crew. A moment later she turned back to stare up at him.

"Alright, good luck out there Alto," she said with a smile and turned away to her crew. Alto nodded at this before turning to look around, seeing the three fighters of his team were ready to go with their pilots prepared to climb into their cockpits. Suddenly a sharp whistle from across the hangar drew his attention over to another section of the hangar where he saw Klan standing on top of her own VF-25S Fighter.

"Time to go! We need to meet the _Gefion _before she launches from the Spaceport! Let's move out!" she ordered with a yell and quickly scrambled to her cockpit while Alto promptly did as well climbing into his own fighter's cockpit as with loud roars the reaction engines of the various fighters started to start up. Alto dropped into his cockpit and went through a quick checklist before starting to taxi his plane out of the hangar followed by the rest of his team. His team was accompanied by Antares and then Pixie Team at the back. Once all twelve fighters were out of the hangar and on the tarmac, they all in almost perfect sequence transformed into GERWALK Mode. Then with a louder roar the variable fighters of the 1st Group rose from the tarmac and once at a suitable altitude converted back into fighter mode roaring away.

**-o-o-o-**

**Gilliam Military Port  
****Landing City Military Reserve **

A kilometer further inland from the rest of the Military Reserve is the Gilliam Military Port, which was built into a caldera of an extinct volcano. While it was only a secondary facility to the even more massive Terra Nova Orbital Shipyard and Spaceport Facility, it still was quite busy with numerous ships coming and going from the facility. This was mostly due much of the Fold Quartz mined that wasn't being used by Nova Terra itself where shipped out from the Military Port due security reasons along with completed LAI-produced ISC Units. Also, with several smaller colony fleets purchasing VF-25 Messiahs from LAI directly they were shipped from this Port due to having the new LAI-owned variable fighter factories on the outskirts of Landing City. As the twelve fighters of the 1st Variable Fighter Group approached the Port they could see a pair of former Zentradi Scout Ships converted into High-Speed Fold Quartz Transports descending towards the Port each with a quartet of _Northampton _Class Stealth Frigates at their sides while another of these converted Transport was ascending from the Port with its own pair of _Northampton _Class Frigates and a pair of aging but still powerful _Inferno _Class Artillery Cruisers as its escort. While a converted _Guantanamo _Class Carrier was being loaded up with dozens of brand-new VF-25A Messiahs to be delivered to fleets like the nearby 9th Long Range Colonization Fleet.

In his fighter, Alto could only whistle in some awe at the overall flow of traffic coming and going from the decent-sized military starport. He was quite surprised to see the _Macross Quad _the second _Macross Quarter _Class ship built docked with the port. He knew that the _Quad _was the flagship of the SMS Macross Olympus Branch and most likely here to escort transports to the _Macross Olympus_. However, right next to the larger form of the _Quad _was the smaller form of the _Gefion _along with a pair of its sister ships the _Axion _and the _Accel_. The _Gefion _looked about ready for launch with of its hatches closed and ready.

"_Gefion _this is Pixie Leader of the 1st Variable Fighter Group on approach with twelve," came the voice of Klan over the radio.

"Pixie Leader, _Gefion _Control here, you have clearance to land, but please make it quick for we are just about ready to launch," another voice replied a moment later. Alto raised an eyebrow wondering why they were hurrying things along, but he was sure there was a good reason for it.

"Understood _Gefion _Control starting our landing now," Klan replied before switching her radio over to the frequency shared with the rest of the group.

"Alright, you heard the lady everyone, shift to GERWALK and prepare for landing on the ship," she ordered as they came ever closer to the small Stealth Frigate. Alto gulped slightly at how little the ship looked and how tiny the catapults looked from up in the sky. He was too used to landing on the larger _Quarter _or on a dedicated ground-based runway.

"Wilco," Alto said along with the rest of the Group and switched his fighter over to GERWALK Mode as the paired catapults on either side of the _Gefion _lit up with holographic landing lights.

"Skull Lead is wheel's down," Alto said a moment later as the feet of his fighter touched one of the holographic landing lights followed by the rest of his team and Antares Team. Pixie Team landing on the other catapult. A minute or so later, his fighter was started to be lowered into the hangar while Alto looked up at the open skies of Terra Nova and bid a silent goodbye to his new home along with his friends he was leaving behind. With the last of the fighters loaded onboard the ship, the _Gefion _cast off its remaining umbilicals and docking clamps before starting to rise from its docking bay. As it rose through the sky of Terra Nova its speed began to increase, and before long the small ship was in orbit of the planet on a heading towards open space. A few minutes later the ship disappeared from the solar system with a flash of white light as it folded out.

**-o-End-o-**

**Post Chapter Notes**

After a couple of false starts on this chapter, I finally got it finished. I really wanted it to be a bit longer, but I figured it would be best to have it this short. Anyways. We get to see a look at the 1st Variable Fighter Group and the new Skull Team. I know some readers may have expected a familiar face or two, but with only three remaining pilots in Skull and having two of them retired for reasons I needed to come up with some new faces. Ozma retired for like mentioned; he wanted to be a stay-at-home dad to his baby son, leaving Cathy to become Captain of the _Quarter_. Luca's retirement will be explained later. Then with Klan becoming the commander of the new 1st Fighter Group of the SMS, she needed to have her own squad, which saw myself turning them into a Valkyrie Unit. Why I did this will be explained, but it boils down to Frontier losing the factory making the parts needed to keep the Queadluun-Rheas running with the destruction of its Auxiliary Industrial Island. My original plan would have Alto becoming the second-in-command of Skull, with Klan taking over as Skull Lead, Nene becoming Skull Three, and another character, like Leon, becoming Skull 4, but I figured it would be best to keep Pixie Team together pretty much. While giving Alto a bit of needed reasonability after the war. Also speaking of Skull in general, the name of this chapter is actually the name of Skull Squadron's theme song from the original series.

The new Skull team is pretty much both new and familiar faces with all of them from somewhere in Macross canon. Leon, of course, is from Macross 30, like I mentioned before, Mashida is one of the two Nightmare Plus pilots we see Alto commanding at the beginning of the final battle, and finally, Miyuki is from the Macross Frontier Ace Game, as Female Pilot B and later gets a name in Triangle Frontier. In this story, she is actually the unknown pilot we piloting a Nightmare Plus equipped with a Dragunov Sniper Rifle. We see this Sniper Equipped Nightmare Plus a few times during the battle, including around the end of the battle as Alto prepares to blitz the Vajra Queen, therefore we know they survived. Granted we hear the voice of the pilot when they first get set-up at the beginning which is from a male, but by author fiat, I am making them female instead. The rest of the group doesn't really make that much an appearance here outside of being mentioned in the Preface. Speaking of, yes, I had to go there with Antares Team. Who else could have I used as Cyborg Pilots?

Anyways. A few other things the _Macross Quad _that is mentioned in this chapter is the blue _Macross Quarter _we see at the end of the second movie. The Macross Mecha Manuel calls it _Macross Quarter 23 _though since I screwed up in the preface the last chapter which has the New Macross 23 as the _Macross Horizon _I need to figure which New Macross Fleet the _Olympia _happens to be. Next, we are briefly introduced to the VF-25y Messiah Gammas of Antares Team, which is basically a Messiah with parts from the Lucifer. It is not on par with the full-on VF-27 but still is quite better than a basic A-Model Messiah. Speaking of which I kind of eluded at this earlier but the Terra Nova Defense Force main fighter is now the Messiah which thanks to the plentiful deposits of Fold Quartz on Terra Nova LAI is making new Messiahs like crazy to replace the aging Nightmare Plus fighters in the Terra Nova Defense Force while also supplying nearby Colony Fleets like Megaroad-09 with Messiahs. Though other fleets would manage to pay the licensing fee and produce their own Messiahs. Macross Olympus is the only one who didn't really spend a fee thanks to the Project Triangular Agreement.

Okay. That is about it for this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it. Now we get to some fun stuff as Alto and friends start to discover what is going on. With maybe even a fight against some Cylons. Who knows? Anyhow, see you all next time! Ciao!


	5. Chapter Three: A Journey Begins

**Chapter 03: A Journey Begins **

_Vanguard Operations is a term used in some of the larger colony fleets for a portion of the fleet's garrison force that is operating away from the main colony fleet as an advance guard, scouting solar systems ahead of the fleet, or securing vital resources. In some fleets about a good half of the garrison force would be involved in Vanguard Operations, and in the 55__th__ Long Range Colonization Fleet, it was around forty percent. It is thanks to this that allowed the newly settled colony of Nova Terra to build up its own defense force so quickly. They simply recalled much of the units involved with Vanguard Operations to the colony. _

_That said, these Vanguard Operation Units, while are often rotated in and out of the main garrison force can still be away from the fleet for months to over a year. Other units mostly remain on Vanguard Operations for quite long, depending on a few factors. These units are often staffed by people who don't have any families or anything holding them to the main colony fleet. These units are usually the furthest deployed and only return to the fleet when they need resupply and some downtime. Then they are sent right back out again. This one of the more dangerous parts of Vanguard Operations due to moving into unknown regions of space where nothing is known and often quite alone with no other units in range to support them if they get into trouble. _

_For the 55__th__ Long Range Colonization Fleet, these so-called deep space picket units have since been handed off to units from the Strategic Military Services due to the overall danger of such a mission. When Nova Terra was settled all these units were called to the colony for needed resupply and downtime before they were sent out again. This time along with other units, and to secure nearby space to the new colony. Other units were sent out to other colony fleets, and even all the way to Earth to start securing travel routes. _

\- Taken from Colonization Fleet Garrison Force Operations (Version 9)

**-o-o-o-**

**Main Hangar  
****SMS **_**Gefion  
**_**Nova Terra**

As his fighter was lowered into the main hangar of the _Gefion, _Alto looked around from his cockpit and was quite surprised to find that it was quite barren compared to other hangars he had been in. There were the fighters of Pixie Team being led off to one side of the hangar from the opposite elevator while four of what looked to be VF-19 Excalibur Fighters were clustered together in another corner of the hangar. Then there was what seemed to be a pair of RVF-171EX Nightmare Plus Reconnaissance Fighters with a single RVF-25 Messiah up front with a couple of QF-4000 Ghost Fighters alongside it were gathered nearby to the elevator bringing his fighters of his team into the hangar.

'_Wait a minute,' _he thought to himself, taking another, closer, look at the reconnaissance type Messiah, _'I know that fighter!' _

Sure, enough standing next to other Messiah was the suited pilot figure of Luca Angeloni one of Alto's friends from Mihoshi Academy and former member of Skull Team under Ozma Lee during the war. He had retired from service due to his older sister needing his help in running LAI, thanks to the failing health of their father after the end of the war. Though that was the official reason given Alto personally knew that Luca had been asked by the investigation team due to him having worked for Leon Mishima a few times during the last months of the war. It wasn't fair to Luca, Alto knew, but Luca had understood the reasoning and stepped down without any real complaint. Besides it was quite true that his father was literally on his death bed therefore Luca wanted to be with the man as much as he could before he passed. Though from Alto understood Director Wilder did offer him a reserve commission in the SMS if he wanted and Luca had taken it upon the advice of his sister. That actually may be the reason Luca was currently here, which kind of made sense for Luca was quite experienced in combat, and he would also be helpful in trying to figure this new enemy of theirs due to his experience in helping the teams trying to figure the Vajra. Currently, the younger pilot was talking to another pair of pilots underneath the wing of his own fighter. He looked up to see Skull Team fighters being lowered into the hangar, and a big grin appeared on his face. He then said something to the pilots who saluted him before jogging off further into the hangar.

With a loud clunk, the elevator came to a stop where a team of aircraft handlers was waiting to move the four Messiahs of Skull Team off the lift allowing Antares Team to be loaded onto it. Alto was quite surprised to find how fast the handlers managed to get his fighter off the elevator and parked nearby to the three reconnaissance fighters. Once his fighter was locked down into its final position a boarding ladder was attached to side of his cockpit, and with a whine the cockpit's canopy started to rise. At that happen, Alto took a few moments finishing up shutting down the fighter before turning to start to unlock his EX-Gear from the cockpit's seat. As did that he saw a blue-eyed young man in mechanic overalls scrambling up the boarding ladder to assist him.

"Welcome to the _Gefion _Captain Saotome," the man said as leaned in and started to help with Alto's helmet.

"I'm Flight Sergeant Isshin Samille, and I will be the senior plane captain of your team while you are on board the ship," the young man mentioned as he started to help Alto out of the cockpit and onto the boarding ladder.

"Thanks for the welcome Sergeant, I leave this beauty in your care then," Alto replied as he jumped down to the floor of the hangar and looked up as the deck elevator started to rumble back down to the hangar with the fighters of Antares Team.

"Thank you, sir!" the young flight sergeant said with a beaming look before turning his attention to the rest of his crew. Alto chuckled at this before turning his attention to the approaching figure of his friend Luca who was grinning ear-to-ear.

"Luca! You son of a bitch! No one said you are coming along this mission!" Alto said, approaching the shorter young man with a grin of his own.

"Well, the Director mentioned that you may need an experienced hand in keeping you out of trouble, Alto," Luca fired back at him with a laugh making Alto blink at the reply before laughing himself.

"Oh. I seem to recall saving your ass when you tried to tangle with several Vajra Soldiers by yourself," Alto replied with a wave of his hand, making Luca blush slightly, for he still remembered that incident very well. He almost died that day along with an unconscious Michael Blanc and a desperate Sherly he had been trying to save himself. Then Alto had appeared out of nowhere to destroy the small Vajra soldiers menacing the three of them.

"Yes, that's true," Luca said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, making Alto laugh and grab him by the head to give him a noogie much to Luca's embarrassment before it soon morphed into a shoulder hug.

"It was a nice try, Luca, but you have to bring you're A-game to fluster me like that," Alto mentioned with a chuckle releasing the slightly younger pilot.

"That said it is good to see you," Alto mentioned with a pleased look on his face, one of which was copied by his friend.

"Same here, Alto-sempai," Luca mentioned quietly using the old way to address Alto from before the war.

"You know you don't have to call me sempai, anymore, right?" Alto replied with a raised eyebrow looking down at him. For that was when Alto was Luca's senior at Mihoshi Academy which what sempai mainly meant. The two had pretty much graduated from the Academy a few months after the end of the war.

"I know, but I'm used to it," Luca returned with a nod of his head. Alto sighed before turning to look over at the three recon fighters behind Luca.

"So, I take you are going to be the overall reconnaissance team leader than for this mission?" he asked with a hum of thought, making Luca turn and look at the two RVF-171EX fighters with a bit of distaste. For like Alto, Luca hadn't enjoyed his experience piloting a Nightmare after the _Macross Quarter, _and their friends from SMS had left the fleet during the final weeks of the war to investigate what was going on behind the scenes. While the regular VF-171 Nightmare Plus wasn't really a bad fighter in the scheme of things, it just outpaced by the superior VF-25 Messiah. While the late-war upgrade to the Nightmares, which gave them capability to use EX-Gear, gave them new engines and the ability to use the new MDE Weapons did make them better overall than the older variants it still wasn't as good as a Messiah. Though Alto understood the RVF-171EX reconnaissance variant of the Nightmare Plus was substantial step-up from the older regular RVF-171 units due to them incorporating several things from the RVF-25 Messiah into its design. It just wasn't as maneuverable or as fast as a Messiah. That was the reason why only a handful of RVF-25s had been built so far since the older RVF-171EX variant was still viable in the scheme of things.

"Pretty much. The Director figured my experience in helping the team studying the Vajra during the war would be a good thing with these new enemies," Luca mentioned with a nod his head confirming what Alto had already guess about Luca's role in this mission.

"Still, they are making you a Team Leader. That is going to be interesting," Alto said, praising his often-shy friend making the other man chuckle lightly at that with a blush. Still Alto frowned as he eyed the two Ghost Fighters flanking Luca's Fighter.

"You are only going to be bringing two of your Ghosts along? Figured you will bring a full set on this mission. Not to mention the other fighters of your Team not going to have Ghosts with them either?" Alto mused with a thoughtful look over at Luca, who smirked slightly as his look before nodding to the two Ghosts.

"These are actually quite special compared to my usual Ghosts. They sport LAI's latest tech in them, making them on part with the V-9s that the _Battle Galaxy _had launched against us during the final battle while still retaining the control systems of the regular Ghost variant," Luca explained with a nod to the two smaller Ghost Fighters.

"As for why there are only two of them. I am going to be testing a system where the Ghosts dock with the top of my fighter's wings like a super pack but allows the Messiah to get the extra thrust from the Ghosts. It is still in the testing phase right now, but it should allow a Ghost to have a longer operational time. At least in theory," Luca explained with his usual eagerness with new tech, which made Alto chuckle slightly at the excitement Luca was projecting but frowned, turning to look at the Ghosts. The idea that these two Fighters had a similar set-up to those damn V-9s that tore through several squadrons during the final battle was a bit concerning, and he made a mental note not to mention that to Lieutenant Mashida. He was suddenly drawn from his thoughts as a righteous feminine roar of fury reached him making him look up at the rest of the hangar in some concern.

"LEON SAKAI! What did I say about showing your face around me after what you did! Should have known you somehow end up on my ship!" the feminine voice roared out from one side of the hangar, making everything in the hangar pause in some surprise at this. Alto looked over to the fighter beside his own, seeing the pale almost frightened look on Leon's face as he turned away from trying to sweet talk a pair of female deckhands. Then he turned to find the angry form of Major Aisha Blanchett stomping through the hangar towards Leon.

"Oh boy," Alto mumbled with a sigh, "This isn't going to end well!"

Exchanging a look with Luca, Alto started towards the brewing confrontation, and at the corner of his eye he could see Brera off to one side, watching everything with the towering form of Antares Three at his shoulder. Then he saw Klan advancing through the throng of mechanics and other pilots. Sighing he followed behind his commander as she made a be-line for the confrontation hoping that nothing else significant would happen with the also short-tempered Klan got involved in this little dispute.

"Aisha! Still look as lovely as ever I see," Leon managed to say as Aisha came up right in front of him. After staring at him for several moments in silence, she took a deep breath and turned away from him with a frown.

"Leon stay out of my way while you are onboard, or you will somehow find yourself on a training mat with me. Clear?" she softly mentioned to him with her back to him. Leon blanched at this threat before nodding but then knowing she couldn't see him with her back to him.

"Clear, Aisha. I'll stay out of your way," he mentioned before starting towards where Brera was standing. Aisha suddenly turned around at his retreat before looking over the still stunned female figures of two of her deck crew and whirled back towards Leon.

"And leave my crew alone, Sakai!" she bellowed out towards his retreating figure, which he only waved a hand at her over his shoulder in acknowledgment. Currently, Klan was standing in front of her with a frown with Luca and Alto standing a step behind. Alto took a moment of internally chuckling as he saw Luca had grown a couple of inches since he last saw him, which had him a full head taller than Klan. He, of course, wasn't going to mention anything to either of them, for he enjoyed his eardrums intact thank you.

"My apologies Major Klang for that but after the last couple weeks I have had and seeing him in the flesh kind of got away from me," Aisha said to Klan with an almost tired look on her face before looking around and seeing the rest of the 1st Flight Group were paying attention. Alto flinched at that for it was only now he remembered what had happened with the _Gefion _and its crew.

"Still, I like to welcome you all to the _Gefion _we are not the _Quarter _or anything, but we are still an SMS ship, so feel free to enjoy your stay here. I shall have members of the crew direct you all to your quarters so you can freshen up. We shall be folding out for the Lighthouse System within fifteen minutes," she directed with a small smile on her face before turning her attention back to Klan.

"Major if you follow me I have a few things to discuss with you," the woman mentioned the shorter officer making Klan nod in some understanding and with that the two Meltrandi officers swept out of the hangar leaving a few confused faces while the deck crew went on with their duties. Alto looked over at Luca, who had been looking at the retreating Majors with a confused expression on his face.

"What is it, Luca?" Alto asked the younger pilot who shook his head.

"It's nothing really, Alto, but I am wondering what the Major meant by having a bad couple week?" he asked with a confused tone of voice, making Alto look down at him in some surprise before groaning.

"You haven't been watching or reading the News Luca?" Alto asked in an almost explosive tone of voice, which had Luca shaking his head in further confusion. This made Alto look around and quietly, leading the younger man over to a quiet corner of the hangar.

"Sorry, Sempai but I have been busy with a few issues at LAI, and with my father's health going downhill I haven't been following the News at all," Luca explained almost sheepishly to the older pilot making Alto sigh and want to facepalm, but he took a deep breath.

"I am sure you are quite aware of the other ships of the SMS Frontier Branch being assigned to the Vanguard Operations of the Frontier Fleet?" he asked the younger pilot who titled his head with a frown as he wondered where this was going.

"Yeah?" Luca drawled out the answer looking at Alto in some confusion.

"Well. The SMS ships like the _Gefion _were often called upon to take the Deep Space Picket assignments due to their unique status. Basically, the same reason why Skull Team and the others on the _Quarter _where testing the Messiah," Alto continued on with his explanation. Luca nodded following this so far, for he was quite aware of the reason why they had been testing the Messiah for the regular NUNS Garrison Forces.

"The _Gefion _during one such assignment had stumbled onto a world called Ouroboros which unknown to the rest of the New United Nations Government had been settled by a Short-Range Colonization Fleet over twenty years ago when they misfolded. Soon after the _Gefion _arrived at the planet, a local Fold Phenomena went active again. It was some sort of super-Fold Fault which prevented any Fold Travel or Communication. This prevented the Colonization Fleet from reporting the settlement of their new colony to Earth and now prevented the _Gefion _from reporting the same to the _Frontier_. The ship was then stuck on that planet for just shy of two years while helping the settlers against an Anti-UN Force that also had arrived at the planet around the same time as the _Gefion_. Apparently the Anti-UN force had somehow gotten a clue from a set of Protoculture Ruins they were studying the vastly large ruins on Ouroboros contained something that was built by the Protoculture to win their war with the Protodeviln," he mentioned with a sigh making Luca's jaw drop in some surprise at this but Alto wasn't done yet as he took a breath and continued on with the story.

"So, the _Gefion_, its fighter compliment, and its crew along with the local defense forces spent two years fighting against that Anti-UN Force. However, the enemy was dug in well, and after several months of constant fighting with numerous losses on both sides, the two forces entered a sort of Cold War. The Anti-UN didn't know the overall location of this Protoculture weapon they were trying to find and constantly investigated the various ruins across the planet to find it. The _Gefion _and its allies then tried to prevent these investigations. Then finally about a year and eleven months after the _Gefion _arrived on the planet, the super-Fold Fault blocking anyone on the planet from going anywhere briefly disappeared. The _Gefion _then managed to send a message on their Fold-Com, which was received by Headquarters on Nova Terra. I heard from Ozma, through Ranka, that Director Wilder was quite shocked at the message. For he thought the _Gefion _and its crew had been taken out by the Vajra sometime during the early part of the war. However, included in the message was a set time that there was a hole through the super-Fold Fault around the planet, and he couldn't get a force in position in time to reinforce the _Gefion_. He instead asked the _Macross Olympia _who was quite closer to the planet to send in reinforcements. The _Olympia _did especially when the message contained a thorough overview of the planet, including that it contained a good number of Fold Quartz deposits," Alto went on while Luca listened in sheer shock what Alto was saying, but still Alto wasn't finished just yet.

"The _Olympia _sent one of its _Macross Pathfinder _Class ships supported by a good-sized fleet supporting it. The Anti-UN Force got literally swarmed by the large numbers of Variable Fighters the reinforcement fleet was carrying while the Protoculture Weapon that the Anti-UN had finally found and activated was destroyed by a Macross Cannon blast to the face. The damaged _Gefion _was recovered, the residents of the Colony got plans for a Fold Quartz powered Fold-Com to allow them to communicate with Earth, even through the super-Fold Fault and the _Olympia _got a good amount of Fold Quartz allowing to expand their own production of ISC Units. All before the hole in the super-Fold Fault closed three days later," Alto finished up the story with a sigh while Luca only shook his head. He did remember the Director asking for the plans of LAI's new Fold-COMM, and his sister pretty much gave it to him. He briefly wondered if his sister was told this story but shook it off knowing she would have told him something on what had happened.

"Woah. I take it, then the _Gefion _only recently arrived at the colony?" Luca asked with a frown looking around at the busy deck crew as they went over just arrived fighters.

"Yeah. They were towed to Nova Terra, got repaired at the Orbital Station. Then had only just arrived at the Gilliam Spaceport where a news crew was waiting for them. That was only around five or six days ago. However, from what I understand, the crew of this ship received numerous casualties with the majority of its fighter complement either destroyed or their pilots heavily injured," Alto said with a nod to the four VF-19EF Caliburn fighters that took up one wall of the hangar. He knew from a discussion with Ozma that the _Gefion _had two squadrons of Caliburns along with eight Nightmare Plus units set up as fighter bombers and four RVF-171 Reconnaissance Fighters. By the end of the battles on Ouroboros, only four Caliburn units managed to survive with six pilots alive.

"That is partly why I think that the 1st was assigned to this ship for this mission. Instead of assigning a newly formed unit or rebuilding the squadrons they originally had," Alto mentioned to Luca, who nodded in understanding.

"I can understand that, but what about the Major? She looked more worn out then she should now that she managed to get her crew home?" Luca asked making Alto close his eyes and shake his head in some sadness. For thanks once more to Ozma he knew what had happened. However, he didn't get a chance to answer when a third voice butted in their conversation.

"That is because when we returned to the newly settled colony. She found out after our through debriefing from Director Wilder and his officers that her younger sister, a member of Wolf Squadron, had been killed in the final battle over the colony. Which is something else the Major has against Lieutenant Sakai if I am not mistaken. She also found out that her entire family was lost during the fighting on Island Three before it was destroyed by that wonder bomb of yours Captain," the voice mentioned drawing their attention to an officer standing a respectable distance from the two of them. Luca flinched in memory of his plan of luring all the attacking Juvenile Vajra into Island Three from the other Islands and then detonating the Little Girl Fold Bomb destroying the Island. He knew that numerous people had died thanks to that plan, including several full-sized Zentradi who had joined Klan to buy them time to get Ranka into a position to lure the Vajra into the island. While others were killed due to the Juvenile Vajra rushing madly into Island Three due to Ranka's singing.

"Oh god," Luca nearly whimpered at this while Alto blinked, looking over at the now approaching man with a frown.

"Captain Jack Bartlett, commander of Wardog Squadron," the man introduced himself with an almost lazy salute, which Alto soon returned far more crispness than usual. For while he did believe that the pilots of the main Colony Fleet, including Skull Team, had a bit harder time of it fighting against the Vajra. He still respected Wardog Squadron and the rest of the _Gefion _compliment for fighting Anti-UN Forces for two years, with only obsolete fighters from Ouroboros Defense Forces supporting them.

"Sorry to bud in your story Captain Saotome, but we are going to be Folding Out of Nova Terra orbit in a few minutes. Let's get you two situated before then shall we," the other pilot directed with a wave of his arm towards the nearby hatchway leading further into the ship. Alto only nodded at this before leading the still shocked form of Luca to follow behind the other man through the hatchway. A few minutes later saw the ship folding out of the Vajra Solar System and into history.

-o-End-o-

**Post Chapter Notes**

Okay. Wow. This chapter was originally supposed to be part of the last chapter, but it got longer then I planned. Then I came up with last half of this chapter explaining where the _Gefion _was during the Vajra War. Not to mention honoring the game and its story, which I got the ship from in some way. You know now that I have it all written down, I really want to see about writing a side-story following the _Gefion _and its crew through all that happened on Ouroboros. Sigh. I must get the rest of this story and **Journey **finished before I did anything like that, I'm sorry to say. Originally the chapter was supposed to be a bit light-hearted but then I got the idea to include some events from the Macross 30 game in the story.

We also get the reason why Luca retired from SMS, and it was not really something he wanted, but he was asked politely to step down due to his limited dealings with Leon Mishima by the After-War Investigation Team. Was it really fair? No, but as pointed out, it is thanks to the actions of Luca that Island Three was destroyed. Speaking of which, yes, we will see Wardog Squadron supporting the 1st Flight Group in the fights ahead. Though I must say I am not really a player of the Ace Combat games, I do like their story.

That said. I like to mention that I now have a perfect picture of where I am going to take this story in the end. Before I have a couple of vague ideas on where to take it, but now, I have a far fuller picture. This is quite good for while I had a good idea to where I am taking **Journey **due to inheriting a few things from Lucky Miracle **Meeting **didn't have any of that besides those mentioned vague ideas. So, I am quite happy that I got a better handle of the story and its direction before I even got to half-way through the story.

Now I like to mention that with this chapter finished, I am currently sitting two thousand or so words above Fifty Thousand Words, which means I pretty much dominated National Novel Writing Month this year with still five days left of the month. I also keep writing all the way through the month without a single day of not writing which is something I have never done in NaNoWriMo to date. So, I am quite proud of myself. That said, like I mentioned I am going to keep writing well into December. Especially now that I have a far better picture of where to take this story. So, no worries of abandonment of this story, folks! While the vast majority of that word count is from both **Journey **and this story the rest is made up of several outtakes that I had thrown out of the story for some reason or another, some background info I wrote up just for the hell of it, and a couple of Macross Ideas that I wanted to get down before I did anything.

Alright. That is about it for these notes. Next chapter, I have a second Interlude Chapter, which does see a second battle with the Cylons with far better results than the last one. Then the next real chapter we get the first battle between the _Gefion _and the Cylons. Till then I am going to be working on the next chapter of **Journey**. So, see you all later. Ciao!


	6. Interlude 02: An Uninvited Guest

**Interlude 02: An Uninvited Guest **

_The Ninth Long Range Colonization Fleet, sometimes just called the _Lucky 9_, is the second oldest human colonization Fleet in the New United Nations Government and is said to be one of the luckiest Colony Fleets. This comes from it being attacked twice by Uncultured Zentradi Fleets and once by a Supervision Army Fleet getting much of its Defense Fleet shot-up but then bouncing back from each of the attacks rebuilding its defenses stronger than ever before. The Ninth sports the highest population of any of the _Megaroad _Type Colonization Fleets with a quarter-million colonists spread out across the _Megaroad-09 _Colony Ship, its half-dozen trailing Habitat Ships, and a pair of _Atoll _Class Island City Ships. _

_The Ninth and the _Megaroad-09,_ like its sister fleet the Seventh Long Distance Colonization Fleet is quite an exploration effort having found several things, including a pair of medieval-level humanoid civilizations and an almost intact Supervision Army Gunboat which they converted into a full-on _Macross _Class Super Dimensional Fortress. It is said by many in the New United Nations Government that even if the _Megaroad-09 _finds a habitable planet the colonists of the Fleet won't colonize it fully for they enjoyed exploring the galaxy._

_Currently, the Ninth Long Range Colonization Fleet is exploring around the Galactic Core and has become a dedicated ally of the newly settled colony of Terra Nova and has launched several cooperative missions between the new colony's defense force and the Ninth's own Garrison Forces. _

\- Taken from The Colonization Fleet Report: A Look into The Colony Fleets, a live report by Marie Garland

**-o-o-o-**

**Comet C-19085  
****Barron Solar System  
****September 17, 2061 AD **

"Woo hoo!" came the shout over the communication channel as a VF-25A Messiah in the blue and white colors of the _Megaroad-09 _Defense Force twirled and twisted through space nearby a passing comet. Another Messiah, a VF-25F variant, with a red racing stripe of a squadron commander followed behind the first unit with a second VF-25A and an RVF-25 Messiah alongside the comet.

"Ray, are you quite done with the aerobatics we need to get serious here," the voice of Lieutenant Commander Scott Bernard barked over the communication channel.

"Ah, come on Boss give me a little slack! I just love this new fighter!" the voice of Junior Lieutenant Ray Catalano nearly whined out through the channel, making the senior officer sigh in some annoyance though he did have a small smile on his lips hidden by his helmet's face shield.

"We've had these fighters for almost two weeks, Ray, and you are still on a high about flying them," came a third, more feminine, voice of Junior Lieutenant Susie Bartley replied in some exasperation at the other pilot. A gasp of exaggerated surprise from Ray started yet another argument between the two VF-25A Messiah pilots. Commander Bernard sighed at this and shook his head in some annoyance.

"They are at it again, I see sir," Lieutenant Lance Belmont, the pilot of the Recon Type Messiah, mentioned with a sigh of his own. The Commander snorted at this before looking over his shoulder, the trailing RVF-25 Messiah.

"Yup. If I didn't know any better, I would say that they are already married," the Commander dryly mentioned making the other pilot chuckle lightly at his quip.

"Well, they are the only ones in the squadron who don't have a significant other on the Lucky Nine," the Lieutenant mentioned with a thoughtful hum.

"I thought Susie was seeing that biker Romy?" the Commander questioned the other pilot in some surprise, making Lance chuckle.

"Yeah. That fell through a few months ago, sir. Apparently Romy was also seeing Lily, Susie's younger sister, on the side, and Susie found out when we got that surprise leave when we first arrived in this system," the slightly younger pilot mentioned making the Commander shake his head at the stupidity of some people before he groaned.

"I can't believe I am discussing my pilot's love lives like this during a mission! Damn it, I blame you for this Lance!" he said, making the other man laugh in some response since he was pretty much the Squadron's go-to gossipmonger. He also had a side career as a singer, which allowed him to support his wife and the several kids they had adopted over the years.

"Well, sir. I do love to gossip," the man mentioned with a chuckle.

"Still Ariel never mentioned any of that to me, and she is quite a chatterbox," the Commander mused out loud, mentioning his own wife Ariel Bernard, making Lance sigh a bit.

"Sir, your wife is a bit too innocent at times. Comes from being a clone of a Tirolian Princess I guess," Lance replied in some amusement making the Commander nod in some agreement for Ariel was a clone created by a significant figure in the Tirolian Republic, one of several so-called successor states that had once been a large empire cover a few hundred lightyears of the Tirolian Cluster. That government figure had wanted to revive the dead Tirolian Empire and used Ariel to do it. However, his plan was thwarted by a combination of the Republic's Special Forces and a younger Scott Bernard, who had been seconded to the Republic's military to help them train their still new forces.

"However, my wife is a full-blooded Meltrandi, and boy let me tell you she was not happy at all with poor Romy and Lily," Lance continued with a short laugh making the Commander shake his head some amusement at this statement. Lance's wife Sera was from one of the Allied Zentradi Fleets, the so-called Amazon Fleet, and therefore was from a line of proud Meltrandi Warriors. While she wasn't in the military at all, having adopted several orphans, she still offered personal defense training to anyone that needed it in the Fleet. So, Romy had most likely "politely" been asked for a spar by Sera and got the crap kicked out of him.

"That is amusing Lance, but still, I can't believe I am gossiping like my own mother!" the Commander said with an almost whine. His mother, Nina Bernard who while a singer was also quite a gossip. Lance only chuckled at this before suddenly he stopped, and beeping started to be hard over the communication channel. The Commander narrowed his eye at this and waited for the other pilot to report on what was going on.

"Sir, I am picking a small ship trying to hide in the thicker part of the comet's tail," the man reported now all business, which jolted his Commander into action.

"Renegade Two and Three form up on me. Looks like we have an uninvited guest," he barked into his pickup, which stopped the still ongoing argument between his two younger pilots cold.

"Copy," they both replied now all business and brought their planes along either side of their commander's while Lance continued to trail right behind them all as he continued to keep an eye on the hiding ship. The Commander meanwhile switched his communication channel to report on what was going on.

"Gunsight-Thirteen, this is Renegade Leader reporting that we have detected an unknown ship trying to hide in the tail of Comet D-19085. Orders?" he broadcasted to their distant mothership the SDF-13 _Pioneer_ that like the _Macross _before her had been converted from a Supervision Army Gunboat that the Colony Fleet had found pretty much intact a few years ago. It now served as the frontline command ship of the larger Ninth Long Range Colonization Fleet's Defense Force.

"Renegade Leader, this is Gunsight-Thirteen Actual here. Move in to investigate and try for communication. If it appears hostile to your presence or communication, destroy it. We can't afford to have such a ship this close to the fleet," a feminine slightly accented voice replied a few minutes later, making the Commander's eyebrow raise in some surprise. That voice was the ship's overall commander Fleet Captain Susan Hayase, which was quite a surprise but should have expected it since this comet was quite close to the First Defensive Life of the Colony Fleet after all.

"Understood, Gunsight-Thirteen Actual. Is there going to be any reinforcements arriving if this Unknown is hostile?" he asked the Captain a moment later.

"Affirmative Renegade One, the rest of Renegade Squadron is being vectored in to assist while Jupiter and Mars Squadrons are on their way," the Captain replied, making the Commander nod in some relief at that announcement. For his small flight was not currently equipped with any heavy weapons or packs, just a basic load of external ordnance and their gunpods. That included the rest of his squadron, who were patrolling ahead of the fleet. Mars Squadron would be the on-call heavy response unit, with their old VF-171s equipped with armored packs and heavy anti-ship missiles, while Jupiter Squadron is another Messiah equipped squadron out on patrol like his own squadron.

"Understood Gunsight-Thirteen Actual, do you want my flight to wait for the rest of Renegade before intercepting the Unknown or just intercept with my flight?" he asked the Captain with a frown as eyed the Comet's Tail and whatever laid inside it.

"Renegade One, go ahead and confront the Unknown with your flight. If it proves hostile, you can either retreat to wait for reinforcements or engage it at your discretion," the Captain replied a few moments later making the young Commander sigh and shake his head.

"Understood ma'am, Renegade is now moving to intercept Unknown," he replied before changing the channel to his Flight's shared channel once more.

"Alright looks like we are being ordered to intercept the Unknown Ship. If it proves to be hostile, we can either engage it or retreat to wait for reinforcements from the rest of the Squadron. If it still proves to be more then we can handle both Mars and Jupiter Squadrons on their way to provide support in case it is needed," Bernard mentioned to the rest of his flight.

"Understood," the other three said at the same time.

"Alright, let's go and see why someone is trying to peep on our home," he said, and with that, the four Messiahs turned over and dived into the tail of the comet avoiding the smaller rocks and ice that made up the outer layer of the tail's ejecta. Soon they entered the center of the tail and found the unknown ship that they were looking for silently holding position. Through the gas-like ejecta of the comet Commander Bernard stared down at the ship, seeing that is was quite different from any other ship he had seen before in his career or in any record he had seen in his training. The vessel had what looked to be spokes coming out of the center-hull from its starboard, port, ventral, and dorsal hulls along with a longer central spoke coming out of the ship's bow. As he looked closer, he could see several small weapon batteries at the base of each of the spokes. Other than that, he couldn't see any other weapon on the hull. As they continued to approach it, he was surprised to see that it barely reached two hundred meters in length and over two hundred meters in height. Shaking his head, the Commander switched his communications over to wide-band radio.

"Attention! Unknown Ship, this a Fighter Patrol from the Ninth Long Range Colonization Fleet of the New United Nations Government. You are violating our defensive perimeter. You are to identify yourself and your allegiance! If you don't comply you will be fired upon!" he barked into his helmet's microphone as his four fighters came within several kilometers of the vessel coming nearby one of the ship's spokes. A moment after his broadcast, it reacted, and the earlier seen weapon mounts started to open fire on his fighters in a thick anti-fighter screen.

"Woah!" Ray mentioned as he evaded the incoming fire from the ship. Gritting his teeth, Commander Bernard avoided the fire as well and watched surprised as a half-dozen small scimitar-like fighters launched from a pair of forward launch tubes.

"Lance! Pass this message onto the _Pioneer _and the rest of the Fleet!" he ordered, knowing that the recon Messiah had a far more powerful communication suite then his own fighter.

"Yes sir!" the other man said before a moment later, he continued, "Standing by for broadcast Commander!"

"This is Renegade Leader to Gunsight-Thirteen, declaring the Unknown is confirmed hostile! We are now under fire from anti-aircraft weapons, and the Unknown has launch several unknown fighters to intercept my Flight. We shall engage and determine its strength before retreating to await reinforcements!" Commander Bernard calmly stated as he started to evade the fire coming from the approaching unknown fighter craft.

"Done! The message has been broadcasted," Lance reported a moment later, making the Commander nod in some relief before turning his attention to the growing battle.

"Renegade Two and Three I want you to take on those fighters! I shall see about testing this unknown ship. Renegade Four, keep back and observe the battle," he ordered his other fighters swerving around one of these quick little fighters.

"Yes sir," came the almost gleeful reply from Rey and Susie.

"Be careful, sir. That anti-aircraft fire is pretty much thick for such a small ship!" came the worried reply from Lance, making the Commander smirk slightly as he blasted off towards the now hostile ship.

"Don't worry Lance I got this!" he said as with a flick of his thumb on his control stick, he launched several of his missiles towards the ship which then raced towards the ship with a few being destroyed as they approached before a pair of the missiles impacted the ship taking out a good portion of the anti-aircraft guns on one of the spokes and ripped a hole in the ship's hull from the explosion. This made the young commander raise an eyebrow in some surprise for those missiles weren't not even supposed to hit just give those guns something else to shoot at while he approached to do a strafing run on the ship's hull. Also, those missiles where anti-fighter missiles, therefore not all that powerful enough to damage a ship's hull that way. At least on one of their own ships or a Zentradi ship anyways.

"I wonder," he mused to himself as he mashed his finger on the trigger of his gunpod, an MC-17D Beam Gunpod, which fired short low-end particle beam burst at the ship's hull. He watched even more surprised as a three-second burst of particle beam fire tore deep into the Unknown's hull. The MC-17 model Gunpod was initially developed for the use of the VF-17 Nightmare and was modified as the MC-17C to be used by the downgraded VF-171 as an optional particle beam gunpod if the regular GU-14 Gunpod wasn't enough. The new D variant was an upgrade of the C Variant that the _Megaroad-09 _Defense Force used as standard on their aging VF-171 Fighters which were briefly carried over to their new Messiahs since only a handful of squadrons currently sported the new fighters, and the new GU-17 series Gunpods were not ready yet for deployment. Even if it was a particle beam gun it was quite low in power due to being used in small bursts of fire. Hence it wasn't really meant to hurt anything more significant than an enemy fighter. Therefore, it really shouldn't have been able to breach an enemy ship's hull like this, and it defiantly wasn't meant to outright destroy an enemy ship, which made what happened next such a surprise to many.

"Woah!" Commander Bernard yelped in outright shock as the unknown ship start to explode as the particle beam fire, strange to the Commander hit one of the ship's Tylium Fuel Tanks, which made it explode destroying the ship. The Commander, by instinct, switched over to Battleroid made to counter the spin the explosion sent him into.

"Holy shit!" Rey cried out in some surprise, seeing the unknown ship explode from just one pass from his Commander's fighter. This distraction allowed the unknown fighter he was chasing to flip around and open fire on his own fighter. However, while Rey was only in fighter mode, his energy conversion armor was enough to deflect the incoming fire allowing Rey a chance to evade the incoming fighter and destroy it with a few bursts from his fighter's ROV-25 Beam Machine Guns. The remaining pair of unknown fighters then suddenly disappeared in small flashes of white light.

"The hell? They have their own fold drives!" Susie cried out in shock, having been seconds away from destroying the fighter she had been chasing. With that the battlefield became still as nothing remained of the unknowns. A moment later eight more VF-25 Messiah Fighters raced into the area only to discover nothing but friendly signals and numerous pieces of debris much to their surprise.

"Late as usual," Rey said with a snort and shake of his head as he stared around at the floating debris that once was another fighter. It wasn't his first kill, but that had been the closest he had been to getting killed so far in his piloting career.

"Alright, Renegade Squadron, let's pack it in and head home. I think Command is going to be quite surprised to hear this report," the Commander suddenly said as he switched back to fighter mode.

"Yes, sir," came the united response from his squadron. The twelve Messiah then climbed out of the comet's tail leaving only burning debris as a sign of what had happened here. Soon afterward, another squadron of Messiahs arrived escorting a pair of retrieval shuttles that gathered up as much of the debris as possible before they too returned to the fleet.

**-o-o-o-**

**Flag Officer Suite  
**_**Megaroad-09 **_**"Lucky Nine"  
****September 19, 2061 **

It was a few days after the battle with the unknown scout ships, and the gathered Ninth Long-Range Colonization Fleet was now aware of this unknown enemy thanks to the skirmish happening on the literal doorstep of the colony fleet. They were also informed that they had been attacked a day before that battle that saw the deaths of a dozen civilian spacers and hundreds of military crewmen due to these unknowns. While the civilians had a slightly panicked air about them due to these attacks it wasn't all bad. Especially when the Colony Fleet's civilian and military leadership had announced a plan which would have the fleet retreat towards the nearby Nova Terra Colony where its defense forces would join the defensive line around that solar system alongside the colony's own defense forces. The civilian core ships of the fleet would be safe in orbit around the colony world. This plan was heartily approved through the three main colony ships of the fleet. It was better to pool their defense with another colony then trying to fight this new enemy of theirs alone.

All of this was on the mind of Fleet Captain Susan Hayase as she stalked through the halls of the NUNS Garrison Force Headquarters Facility deep inside the main superstructure of the _Megaroad-09 _Colony Ship. Several decks below the ship's main bridge and behind the ship's kilometer and a half long city section. As the Fleet Captain moved through the facility, she sighed at a few officers doing double-takes as she stalked past them. They most likely were officers visiting from either the _Macross Olympia _Colony Fleet or the Nova Terra Colony. It was perhaps the later with the colony leadership deciding to have the fleet fall back to the newly settled colony for mutual protection. The _Olympia _and its fleet were falling back towards the recently discovered colony of Ouroboros. The reason they were doing that was that she bore a vast resemblance to Captain Misa Hayase, the veteran officer who had commanded the now legendary _Megaroad-01 _Colony Ship, which had disappeared mysteriously around forty-five years ago. This was thanks to being the daughter of Lisa Hayase, one of three direct clones made of the woman after the end of Space War I. It didn't help that a movie had recently been released that was a fictional account of what had happened to the _Megaroad-01_ all those years ago.

Sighing once more, the towering woman arrived at her destination, the Flag Officer Suite of the Headquarters, which was the overall home of the officer in total charge of the Colony Fleet's Defense Garrison, Admiral Gunther Reinhardt. She ignored the various small offices and cubicles which were filled with the Admiral's staff as they went about their jobs. A minute or so later she found herself in front of the Admiral's suite where she nodded to the paired NUNS Marines flanking the door who saluted her at her approach, and one of them pressed a button next to the door. A few moments later the door swished opened letting her into the inner sanctum of the Admiral.

"Ah! Susan. Come in, dear girl. Take a seat while I finish this up," the man himself said warmly from one of the small couches that were in front of the man's impressively sized desk. Though Susan knew he rarely if ever used that desk for he preferred to do his business from a more comfortable couch or a chair. Hence the reason why he was currently sitting on the couch with a stack of paperwork spread out on the low-end table in front of the sofa. He smiled up at her as she approached, and with a sweep of his arm, he invited her to sit on the opposite couch, which she took. He then swept up the stack of paperwork from the table and neatly gathered it back into a stack before handing off the stack, the young officer standing at his side.

"There we go, Mike, that should be it for today's paperwork," the Admiral mentioned before making a shooing gesture with his hand towards the door, which made the officer, Micheal Sorich, the Admiral's Flag Lieutenant sigh and moves towards the door. The Admiral then turned his attention to her with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Well, Captain. Your message to me said you had something to run past me?" he mentioned leaning forward slightly, which made the Captain take a deep breath before placing a tablet computer on the table before leaning forward herself.

"Yes, Admiral. I'm sure you have read the reports from the investigation team of what they have discovered from the debris of that scout ship Renegade Squadron destroyed?" she asked the man who blinks at her question, wondering where she was going with this but answered her regardless.

"Yes, I have read it cover to cover along with the debriefing of Lieutenant Commander Bernard and his squadmates. What of it, Captain?" he answered her making Susan nod at him.

"Well, then you know that even though we thoroughly studied that debris and the gun camera footage we know very little of these unknown as of yet," she mentioned making the Admiral narrow his eyes at her, but she continued on.

"There was also a report going around from Intelligence which theorized that Scout Ship had spotted the departure of the _Horizon _and its escorts from the fleet which then reported it to a higher power. The unknowns then ambushed the small fleet to find out more about us," she mentioned, which made the Admiral sigh and lean back in his seat.

"Yes, Captain. I read that Intel Report, but there are a few holes in it," he replied with a snort, making Susan nod in some agreement.

"True sir, but if it is true, then I have an idea to get some better data on these unknowns," she returned, making the Admiral raise an eyebrow in some interest at this statement.

"Basically, we send out a small fleet or just a single ship where it will jump around several nearby systems without trying to hide or using any stealth system. This may draw the unknowns in attacking, allowing us to gather that needed data on them during the battle or maybe even capturing a ship of theirs," she mentioned making the Admiral blink at her before frowning.

"That would have this ship or small fleet be bait for the unknowns, which is something I really don't feel comfortable doing with any of my ships," the Admiral replied, crossing his arms while he stared at her with a shake of his head. Susan only smirked at him before pushing the datapad towards him with a finger.

"Not if we stack the deck by sending out the _Pioneer _with maybe a couple of escorts and a few changes to the old girl," she mentioned with a chuckle that sounded almost evil to the experienced Admiral. Intrigued, the Admiral reached forward and took the datapad, which already had something displayed on its screen. After a few moments reading, he could only blink in some surprise before reading it again and then staring at her in some shock. A moment later he started to chuckle lightly and shaking his head, sitting down the datapad back on the table.

"Okay. I'm impressed now that is stacking the deck in our favor. Though I do have a few concerns about this," he mentioned with a frown staring at the Captain with some concern. She nodded knowing that he would have some concerns but waved for him to continue.

"If we do this, then it will cut down on your overall fighter compliment, and you will be away from any support from this fleet, the Nova Terrans, or the _Olympia _Fleet," he mentioned with a deep frown on his face as he looked at her.

"Agreed. It would cut down my fighter compliment; however, we can counter that through assigning all of the Messiah equipped squadrons to the ship or if you don't want to do that you can assign a pair of the new _Shinano _Class Cruiser Carriers to escort the _Pioneer_. They should give plenty of extra fighter coverage to counteract the dip in the fighter complement of the _Pioneer_. The later though isn't true for the Nova Terra Defense Force apparently sent out a few ships to find any clue on these unknowns in the nearby solar systems. Kind like I am currently purposing. One of which is the SMS _Gefion, _which is currently carrying their elite 1st Variable Fighter Group. I can see about rendezvousing with that ship and supporting them in their own mission," she explained, making the Admiral nod as he looked up in some thought for it appears, she did think of countering his concerns.

"Seems like you did think this think this through and you are correct the _Gefion _along with another frigate or two would be an interesting combination," he mentioned a moment later before nodding and turned to look at her.

"Alright. How long will it take to make these modifications to the _Pioneer_? Since we are going to be starting to fall back to Nova Terra over the next couple days," he asked her, making her nod pleased, for it looks like he was actually going to follow through with her idea.

"According to the Chief Engineer on the _Cyclops, _they have all the parts needed to whip up the upgrade modules. Since if you remember correctly the President nixed that idea you had last year of converting the _Lucky Nine _into a _Macbeth _Class Battle Fortress," she replied with a short chuckle making the Admiral groan in some exasperation. It had been soon after the second of their _Atoll _Class City Ships had been produced and he had put forth a proposal to build a third _Atoll _Class or a larger _Island _Class allowing the _Megaroad-09 _to offload its civilians entirely to this third colony ship where it would then be converted in a powerful _Macbeth _Class ship which basically took out the city section of the ship and turning the ship into a full-on Battle Fortress including a main gun. It had been done before a few times when one of the _Megaroad _Colony Fleets settled a new colony the old colony ship would instead of being scrapped or something like that would have been converted into a vessel capable of defending the new colony from a threat. However, the colony fleet's newly elected president had vetoed that idea when it was being seriously considered by the previous president.

"Apparently, they managed to build all of the needed parts and such for the conversion, which will allow them to whip up the needed upgrade parts for the _Pioneer _in a few days. Since we need to dock the _Pioneer _anyways with the _Cyclops_ to get that faulty engine array fixed, they can easily mount the upgrade parts during the said repair job. Though the upgrade parts would be barebone jobs but will work. So only three to four days give or take Admiral," she mentioned making the Admiral nod in some agreement with her statement.

"Okay, Captain, there are a few things we need to iron out with all this before I allow this plan to go ahead. Not to mention we will need to have the president's approval," the Admiral replied after a moment of thought. She nodded at this, for it did make sense to her that there a few things needing to be taken care of before this plan of her went through. Though she did flinch at the thought of informing the President.

'_She is going to be pissed that I did this behind her back!' _she thought to herself with an internal groan, but the Admiral was quite correct. They would need to inform her of this plan. Leaning forward the Admiral looked once more down at the datapad reading a few things on the pad before looking back at her with a frown.

"Alright, firstly I will let you have Renegade and Jupiter Squadrons, but the rest of your fighters will have to be older Nightmare equipped squadrons. I need the rest of my Messiah equipped squadrons with the fleet," the Admiral explained, making the Captain wince but nodded, knowing that it was a good idea. Still, having a pair of squadrons of the new Messiahs would be the next best thing, in her opinion.

"I am also going to allow to take Cyclops and Titan squadrons which shall also counter having a lesser fighter compliment," the Admiral mentioned making Captain Hayase smile slightly for it was a good idea and something she did not even think about earlier. Both squadrons were made up of VA-9 Invader-II Variable Attackers.

The fleet had initially launched with the then-brand-new VA-3 Invader Variable Attack Fighters onboard. They had been so useful in some engagements with Uncultured Zentradi and other such enemies over the years that the Fleet's Garrison Forces became quite fond of the craft. While vastly outdated in the scheme of things today the Invader would be brought back to service a few times from retirement and upgraded due to some projected need. Finally, after the fleet's Invaders were brought back three times over the years, they were fully retired and scrapped due to the airframes well past their service life. However, projecting a future need for a heavy variable fighter/attacker the Fleet's Garrison Force put out a request for a fully upgraded and modern version of the venerable VA-3 Invader. The firm Centennial Douglas, mainly a company producing Destroids and smaller support craft, would then come up with the VA-9 Invader-II Variable Attacker. The new Variable Attacker Craft was basically at its core a vastly modernized and expanded Invader sporting not only the capability of carrying weapons on its lengthened wings but sporting a pair of internal modular payload bays which can carry a variety of different weapons. It also sported new engines that powered a hefty SWAG Armor across its body, allowing it to serve as heavy battleroid to support the lighter-skinned regular battleroids. So, the idea of having a pair of squadrons of these heavy variable attackers would give the _Pioneer _a hefty punch to use in any engagement.

"Yes, that will be quite useful, sir. Thank you. Any further issues you need to go over with the plan before we head off to brief the President on the plan?" the Captain mentioned leaning forward while the Admiral only nodded. The two then spent further several minutes ironing out a few minor issues before the two officers got up from their comfortable seats and started to head out of the Headquarters facility on their way to the Presidential Residence all the way across the massive colony ship. After arriving at the Residence and briefing the President on the plan with some loud yelling from said President the plan was approved. The _Pioneer _was then moved into the skeletal-like exterior dock of the massive-sized Factory Ship _Cyclops_. After four days in dock the large battle fortress then left the dock and folded out of the system. The Factory Ship and its own dedicated escort fleet then folded out as well join the rest of the fleet, which had already arrived in the Vajra Solar System.

-o-End-o-

**Post Chapter Notes**

Whew! This chapter went through a couple of different versions before it became what you just read. The original version only had the battle in the first half, but then I got the idea which would lead to my already mentioned clearer picture of where this story is going. This would lead to the rewrite of the chapter slightly and adding the second half of the chapter, which I kind of threw together in a bit of hurry. It is not really my best work. Sigh.

That said, I like to admit that I kind of goofed slightly with this story overall. For with the Cylons attacking ships of the Ninth Long Colony Fleet, _Megaroad-09_, the story really should have focused more on them then on the Frontier's settled colony. However, I was enamored with the idea of doing a story that took place after the end of the series that I kind of forgotten that in the scheme of things. If I wanted to focus on Frontier, then I should have had ships from the colony get attacked, having the _Megaroad-09 _Fleet supporting the Terra Nova Colony in its fight against the Cylons, and not the other way around. Oh well. At least I can fix it slightly, which this chapter starts to do in the scheme of things.

Okay, with my confession finished time to get into a few other things. Yes. I used characters from Robotech New Generation for this chapter. However, they have been vastly modified, including their names, which kind of never made sense in a few names. I also had the SDF-13 _Pioneer _introduced into the story. No, it is not the same _Pioneer _from Robotech, but a full-on _Macross _Class SDF made from a derelict Supervision Army Gunboat the Fleet found several years before the start of the story. Yes. It is a nod to the awesome, but unfinished, Legend of Megaroad fanfiction series. Again yes. I did kind give it a second more shallow nod to it in the second half of the chapter with the mentioned movie that is a fictional account of the _Megaroad-01 _and what happened with it.

One last thing the character of Susan Hayase is the daughter of Lisa Hayase who had been one of three direct clones of Misa created after the end of Space War I. We know that the New United Nations did indeed create a vast number of adult clones to vastly expand their population after the war. I just had Misa being one of the templates used for these clones. Hence. You can consider Susan as Misa's granddaughter in a way. Anyways I am rambling. Time to end these notes.

Oh. I kind of loaded a Chekov Gun in this chapter. It is kind of my first, so I am quite excited to see what you folks think of it and see if anyone can guess what I have planned. Whistles Innocently.

That is about it for this second Interlude Chapter. Next up. I am going to try to get the next chapter of **Journey **finished and post that next. Till then, Ciao!


	7. Chapter Four: The Calm Before The Storm

**Chapter 04: The Calm Before The Storm  
**  
_The VF-19EF Caliburn Fighter is a monkey model design of the limited produced Federal NUNS VF-19 Excalibur Fighter. It was developed for exportation to distant colonies and colony fleets thanks to the New United Nations Government restricting any export of the high-performance fighter. Due to this, Shinsei Industries, in partnership with LAI Corporation of the 55__th __ Long Distance Colonization Fleet, would introduce the Caliburn. It would sport downgraded but highly tuned FF-2110E Engines and some other minor downgrades, which made it more palatable to that of the New United Nations Government for export. A few of the distant colony fleets and a couple of the colonies would pick up the Caliburn as their primary fighter instead of the General Galaxy VF-171 Nightmare Plus. Others would use the Caliburn as a special operations unit and an ace-level unit, which includes the Ninth Long Range Colonization Fleet before it was replaced by the new VF-25 Messiah in mid-2061._

_Another major group that would use the Caliburn would be the Strategic Military Services, who would try to go around the exportation ban on the regular fighter with a few changes to the fighter. The first being that the downgraded engines would be replaced by superior FF-2550 Engines, a new gunpod based on the MD-17 Gunpod from the VF-17 Nightmare, and an EX-Gear Cockpit System allowing pretty much anyone to pilot the fighter when required. The resulting VF-19EF/SMS Fighter was quite a superior fighter over that of the basic VF-171 and the bare-bones regular Caliburn. About one hundred fifty of these fighters were produced and spread across the various SMS Branches. The SMS would continue to use this updated Caliburn till they began testing LAI's own fighter design, the VF-25 Messiah. Even then, with the settlement of the Terra Nova Colony and the general adoption of the Messiah by numerous other clients across the galaxy, there is a rumor that a new design based on the Messiah is said to be in the works._

\- Taken from Jane's Guide to Variable Fighters: 2061 Edition

**-o-o-o-  
**

**SMS **_**Gefion**_**  
Seven Pillar Solar System  
September 29, 2061 AD  
**  
_Dear Ranka,_

_I know I promised you that I was going to write to you every chance I got. However, due to security concerns, I was only able to write out those one-line texts you have been receiving from me for the past two weeks. Jeez. Has it really been two weeks since we left Terra Nova? It feels like it has been longer. Stupid Fold Jumps. Anyways. I have now been able to sit down and write this out to be sent in the next data-burst back home._

_So, where should I start? Okay. I am sure you have heard about a few things about our mission since it began on the news or from either Ozma or Cathy. Let's start with those bits and work from there, shall we?_

_First up. It was only a couple days after we left home that we started to run into a couple of squadrons of those scimitar-looking fighters of the Unknowns. The 1__st __ Flight Group and I easily managed to take them out with the support of the ship. That I am sure wasn't mentioned on the news, but no worries those fighters didn't put a single scratch on any of us during the fight. Those things really don't have the firepower to take us on. We managed in both battles with those fighters to take most of them down before the reminder rabbited away with their weird FTL. The following day was when we almost literally ran into one of the Unknown's Black-Hulled Scout Ships I am sure you heard about from the news report from the Lucky Ninth. We barely managed to target it before it too ran away much to the frustration of the ship's crew, though they did manage to give the poor thing quite a scorch mark from the main guns before it could run._

_It was right after that that we managed to find a pair of derelict Zentradi Picket Ships that looked to have been fighting against the Vajra sometime before our colonization of Terra Nova and the Vajra disappearing from this galaxy. At least all but that small brood Ai-Kun controls anyways. We stayed around these ships until a salvage team from the colony arrived to take them back home for repair and conversion. With the Macross Galaxy Fleet still out there, those remnants of that Zentradi Main Fleet sniffing around, and now these unknowns. We are going to need every ship we can get our hands-on._

_Sigh. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever get peace._

_Anyways. It was soon after those Picket Ships were recovered when we ended up right in the middle of a Zentradi Scout Fleet much to our horror and surprise. Though I am sure those poor Zentradi were more surprised than we were at our appearance. We were about to Fold back out before they could get their senses back when the Major came up with the craziest idea. She started to broadcast several videos of both your and Sherly's performances, including your recent duet. She topped it off by showing that one scene from The Bird Human movie with the two of us. You know which scene I am talking about. Yeah. I know you are most likely blushing right now. So, I shall keep going, though there was nothing much else to talk about that battle, if I could call it that, the Zentradi pretty much panicked and ran away. That was a laugh to see, in my opinion. Poor guys._

_Then we get the main event of which I am sure you have heard about from the news. We found a single wrecked _

Deneb _Class Cruiser from the Macross Galaxy. It looked like it was from the first battle between the Galaxy and the Vajra from the war. Again. We called for a team from Terra Nova to come and retrieve it. Since it was a valuable source of intelligence on the Galaxy and what has happened with it during that time. However, I am not going to say what we personally found onboard since it is not something I really want to mention in this message. If you want more detail, go ask your brother, but I doubt that he will tell you anything for it was quite something to see in person._

_Okay. That is about the main events happening in the last two weeks. Ever since then, we have been jumping around trying to find anything else about these unknowns. However, we found nothing, and it is like they have entirely disappeared. _

With a sigh, Captain Alto Saotome looked down at the email he was in the middle of writing to his girlfriend, Ranka Lee. He looked around at the small quarters that had been home for him over the last two weeks. They were not all that bad since, unlike his old bunk on the _Quarter, _he had it to himself, but it was still quite small. It sports a pair of built-in bunks on either side of the room. Then lockers were built underneath the bunks and along the walls by the door for any storage space. While a very tiny bathing cubical took up one far corner and a small countertop took up the opposite corner. Finally, a desk took up the far wall opposite the door squeezed in between the two corners. He had been kind of expecting such a tiny room when he had boarded the ship for, he did remember his place onboard the _Quarter _after all. Sighing Alto turned back to the desk and the letter he had been writing wondering how long this search was going to continue for he did miss home.

They were currently waiting in this out-of-the-way system receiving needed news and such from Terra Nova thanks to recently launched communication relay buoy. It was from this news that they knew that the 9th Long Distance Colonization Fleet had retreated to Terra Nova for mutual protection. Another thing they had learned was that the 9th had sent their own ship out to find anything about the unknowns. While the Terra Nova Defense Force Command had recalled the other scout ships back to Terra Nova to strengthen the defense of the colony. They had been quite nervous about that reported Zentradi Patrol Fleet, which was quite nearer to the colony then they initially believed. This kind of made the crew of the _Gefion _a bit alone out in the middle of nowhere like this, but they were heartened by the news of the 9th having sent out their own ship out.

Staring down at the holographic screen displayed his half-finished message Alto turned away with a sigh and started to get up to go for a walk around the ship to get his thoughts in order. He wasn't used to being away from his home for this long for always before when he was deployed away from the Fleet, it was only for a few hours to a few days. The deployment to Gallia 4 being the notable exception though due to Fold Faults that felt more like a couple of days instead of a couple of weeks in Normal Time. Still, it was quite a feeling being away from his home and his girlfriend like this for so long. He was sure it was the same for those members of the crew who hadn't been a member of the crew before the colonization of Terra Nova. Since the majority of the old 55th Long Range Colonization Fleet defense garrison didn't really spend all that much time away from the colony fleet and their families all that much. Sighing once more, Alto picked up his uniform jacket from his bed and was about to move to the door when the alert sirens started to go off. This saw him out of the door and down the corridor heading towards the hangar before he even knew what he was doing. It was only then that he noticed the sirens, and he set aside his worries as he knew he needed to keep his head straight. With a heightened resolve, Alto continued towards the hangar.

**-o-o-o-**

**Bridge  
SMS **_**Gefion **_**  
Three Pillar Solar System  
**  
On the bridge of the ship, its commander Major Aisha Blanchette could only frown in some worry as she stared at the holographic globe that dominated the center of the tiny bridge of the Stealth Frigate. On the globe various new contacts started to appear one-by-one much to the combined horror and some confusion of the bridge crew. Like with the Unknowns, these ships just appeared out of nowhere with some sort of strange FTL. However, after the initial panic of a fleet of Unknowns, the sensors and long-range cameras of the Frigate managed to figure out that no these are not the Unknowns but something else entirely.

"Are we completely in Stealth Running?" Aisha asked her crew as she stared at the contacts of these new Unknowns. While the _Gefion _like any _Northampton _Class Frigate sported stealth features, which were pretty much passive but there also a few things they could do to further stealth the ship. Like lowering their power consumption and shutting down a few notable power-hungry systems.

"Yes, ma'am! We also have moon in the way so they can't detect us visually," an officer reported making Aisha nod and turned away from the Globe.

"Let's keep it that way then," she ordered the crew before she moved over to the station of the sensor officer leaning over the shoulder of Captain Luca Angelloni. She had called him to the bridge as soon as the first ships started to appear on their sensors. Using the sensors of the frigate and his own Ghost Drones, which he ordered to launch earlier, he was getting plenty of data on these new Unknowns.

"What have we got so far, Captain?" she asked the younger man who was excitedly going through numerous screens of data.

"Well, I think I have figured out how we can't detect them through the Cross Dimensional Radar or at least these unknowns. I don't know about the other Unknowns though it should be similar for these ships appear to similar technology and such," the man reported bringing up a holographic screen, making Aisha blink in some surprise at this report. That was the last thing she expected, but a welcome one for that had been quite an annoyance. Though she briefly wondered why they hadn't gotten any clue of this earlier with the Unknown Fighters and that Scout Ship.

"Oh?" she inquired, and the Captain chuckled slightly before waving at the screen he brought up.

"It looks like they only enter what we call Dimensional Space for a couple of microseconds before being dropped into some sort of lower layer and then to normal space. That is why we cannot detect them with the Cross Dimensional Radar or any other sensor we have currently," the man explained, showing the different readings of the ships appearing.

"Why haven't we detected anything like this earlier Captain?" she asked with a frown making the man sigh and shake his head as he stared over at his screens.

"The reason why ma'am is whoever these new unknowns happened to be they appear to not be as advanced as the first Unknowns even though they share technology. That allowed me to far more easily get a reading on these unknowns while they are jumping in like this," he explained, making Aisha stare down at him in some surprise.

"So basically you are saying that since these Unknowns are a step down from the other Unknowns which gave you an easier time with getting the needed clue to figure out their FTL method," she asked with some annoyance making the young genius look up at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I haven't figured out how their FTL Method works Major, only how to detect it with our sensors," he clarified, making Aisha want to scream in frustration. Taking a breath, she turned her attention back to the tactical station and its holographic globe seeing the new unknowns had now started to launch what looked to be fighter craft and some sort of small craft. The fighters began to take up patrol stations around the fleet while the small craft started to recon the area around the fleet.

"Have we got anything else from these new Unknowns Captain?" she asked, turning back to look down at the Captain. As he was studying some further information on another screen. He looked up and blinked at her before sighing, bringing up a screen showing images of the distant fleet taken from cameras of the Ghost Drones.

"Well Major it appears they have a variety of different ship types including a handful of what look to be fright transports of some sort," he explains pointing at a few of the images showing a couple of boxy like transports and some sort of train-looking transport before bringing up a zoomed-in image of one of the ships of the unknown fleet.

"That said it appears the majority of their fleet is made out of these small ships," he continued with a sigh making Aisha narrow her eyes at the screen and the sleek curvy like looking ship that it displayed.

"That looks like some sort of civilian starliner. Just like our own _Galactic _Class Starliner," she mentioned making the young captain nod up at her before dismissing the screen.

"Correct ma'am. The unknown fleet sports about twenty of those Starliner-like ships in three different types along with a trio of transports that are mainly made out of some sort of cargo containers, a couple of box-like transports, a more massive heavy freighter design, a large dome-like ship and a handful of further ships," the Captain said bringing up more zoomed-in images of the different ship designs.

"The total count of the fleet is around thirty-seven ships," the Captain continued leaning back in his seat. Aisha frowned at this as she studied the various zoomed-in images of the different ships of the fleet.

"What about military ships? Do they have any warships?" she asked, narrowing her eyes as she eyed the giant alligator looking freighter design, which seemed to be some sort of military design to her eyes. Captain Angelloni only nodded at this bringing up a pair of different images, one showing a decent-sized arrowhead looking design with a small pod-like attachment to the bottom of the ship. The other picture showed a more zoomed-in picture of the sizeable military-looking freighter showing what seemed to be turrets laying along its sides.

"They appear to have a pair of these small arrowhead-like ships which their fighters are operating out of while that large freighter like design appears to have some sort of heavy-looking turrets on its hull. It also looks to be capable of supporting fighters and their small craft," the Captain answered, making Aisha nod in understanding with a frown on her face as she continued to stare at the image for a couple of minutes. Luca, though, was leaning back in his seat, staring at the images with a worried look on his face.

"Also, Major, I do have a theory of what type of fleet we are looking at here," he mentioned drawing Aisha's attention back to him with a curious look on her face.

"At first, I thought it was some sort of small colony fleet with basic military protection. However, as I thought about it, I threw that out, for it wouldn't make sense for a colony fleet to have only these small starliners as their main colonist carrying ships. It would be quite uncomfortable for the colonists," he mentioned making Aisha frown, wondering where he was going with this line of thought.

"I then noticed something. All these ships look quite beat up with that military-looking freighter having some sort of damage all along its hull. Seeing that I think this fleet is actually a refugee fleet running from our friends the first Unknowns," the Captain explained making Aisha raise an eyebrow at him before looking over at the screens showing the zoomed-in images seeing that he is quite correct the civilian ships look beat up while that freighter had several areas which looked to be damaged. She at first thought those places where just some mismatched pieces of the hull, but now that she studied the images more, she could see it was, in fact, damage. Shaking her head, she turned to look down at Luca with a frown at the later part of his comment. For a while, that did make some sense to her, there was no real proof.

"Okay. I agree with you about it being a refugee fleet Captain. They being related to the First Unknowns, however, is something else entirely. Don't you think?" she asked him and was surprised by the short laugh from him before dismissing the images of the fleet. He then once more bringing up the data on the readings of their FTL Drives.

"While I have no solid proof of that ma'am, what I do know is that the two unknowns are connected somehow for they use similar FTL," the Captain mentioned making Aisha nod in some agreement for it did make sense now that she thought about it.

"Still, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Captain," she said with a sigh before staring around at the bridge and the other officers.

"Anyways, keep an eye on them, for now, Captain," she directed before she moved away from the sensor station heading towards her command chair. Luca only nodded at her before turning his attention to getting as much data as he could from the sensors.

**-o-o-o-**

Over a day later found the _Gefion _and its crew still in stealth mode, watching the second unknown fleet as it just sat there in the middle of space. Outside of sending out various teams to the different planets in the solar system and the system's sole asteroid belt. Still, it allowed the crew of the ship to gather a massive amount of data on the ships and such of the unknown fleet as it went about its business. Luca Angelloni was permanently at the sensor station going through various pieces of data on the unknowns. This was mostly on the tiny recon craft that the fleet had launched for scouting the planets of the local solar system. These crafts surprised him when they jumped to their various destinations. With a few even jumping outside of the solar system since they didn't detect them arriving anywhere in the system. This made him quite excited,= for it allowed him to gather more data on the unknown FTL method and their drives when they jumped.

Meanwhile, a few other officers on the bridge were going through other pieces of data on the fleet. One such officer was Captain Mina Forte, the ship's communication officer who had been trying to pin down how the ships communicated with one another. She finally managed it when she started to go through numerous regular radio frequencies, which saw her finding the handful of frequencies the ships were communicating on. She was currently explaining this to Major Blanchette.

"We have around a few hours of recorded chatter from the various ships of the unknown fleet including both military chatter in between the escort ships and the recon craft, and a lot more civilian chatter in between the civilian ships of the fleet," she explained almost excitedly making Aisha nod at this staring at the holographic window showing the mentioned chatter going on. All of which was in another language, one that sounded quite familiar to her ears.

"Can we understand it, Mina?" Aisha, her friend who frowned at this before turning to stare at her station for a moment.

"I have been running it through the computer to see if we have encountered this language before, but so far, we have nothing," Mina reported with a shake of her head. Aisha nodded in some understanding at that. However, a beep soon sounded at the communication station attracting the two women's attention. Mina studied her station for a moment before her eyes widened in some surprise.

"According to this Aisha, the language bears a strong resemblance to an early dialect of Zentradi back when the Protoculture was still around," she reported making Aisha blink in some shock at that for she did not expect that.

"Oh, wow. So, can we listen in on their chatter now?" she asked the bluenette communication officer who only frowned at her screens for a moment before shaking her head.

"Yes and no. We can listen in, but the language is still different enough from the original dialect that the computer is only able to translate a small portion of it. Though now that we know what the language is based on, we have a foot in the door to understand it. Still, that will take time to fully translate it," Mina explained, making Aisha nod in some understanding.

"Good work Mina. Keep recording as much as you can. Since I am sure the more you have, the easier it will be translated," Aisha said with a smile before patting the other woman on the shoulder, making the slightly younger woman beam up at her before turning back to her own station. Aisha nodded at this before moving away from the communication station and moving over to the sensor station and Luca.

"Anything new…" Aisha started to say to him but was stopped as an alert began to blare from the sensors station making Luca lean forward in some surprise. Aisha meanwhile turned around to stare at the bridge's tactical map in shock as several new contacts started to pop-up on the holographic globe. At his station, Luca brought up the main sensor screen and could only grit his teeth.

"Major! It is the first Unknowns," the Captain reported as his fingers started to race across his controls.

"I am detecting three of their heavy carriers, and what looks like six of their scout ships," he reported as the tactical map updated with new contacts in the form of fighters launching from both the carriers and the scout ships. A moment later, the second unknowns launched their own fighters from their heavy freighter and the smaller escort ships. While their patrolling fighters moved to intercept the scimitar-looking fighters of the first unknowns. The smaller escort ships soon erupted with gunfire as they too entered the battle with numerous close-in weapons swatting dozens of the enemy fighters out of space. The freighter meanwhile started firing several more massive weapons at the distant carriers and scout ships of the first unknowns.

"Well, Captain looks like you are quite correct that they are connected," the Major mused as she stared at the growing battle between the two unknown fleets on the tactical plot. Luca only nodded at her as he stared in some surprise as the vast number of fighters being launched by the first unknowns. He had heard about how many those star-like heavy carriers could carry from the battle-data of the first battle with them. It was another thing to see that in person.

"Ma'am. Are we going to help them?" one of the officers on the bridge asked, making Aisha turn to look over at the officer with a frown.

"I would love to help them, Lieutenant, but right now, we have a reinforced fighter squadron with us, and they have hundreds of fighters flying around. Not to mention, if we interfered with the battle, it would cause confusion along these second unknowns leading to further deaths along their numbers," she started to explain but was suddenly shocked as the civilian ships of the second unknown fleet began to disappear from the tactical plot.

"Major! The Second Unknowns are starting to jump away," Luca reported as the ships of the Second Unknown Fleet started to disappear one-by-one on his screens. Aisha blinked at this before nodding, for it did make sense. They were trying to get the civilians out of danger.

"And now they are started to pull back their fighters from the battle," came the report a few moments later as the last of the civilian ships had jumped out of the battle. Then finally, they watched as the last of the fighters landed onboard the ships, and the remaining three ships jumped out of the battle. The ships of the first unknown fleet paused for several moments before they too started to jump away. Before long, the only thing remaining to remind anyone about the battle was floating pieces of debris of destroyed fighters and other assorted pieces of battle debris.

"Huh. That was quick," Luca mentioned with a blink of surprise, making Aisha nod in some agreement with the young man. A moment later, Luca hummed in some thought as he brought up a few images of some of the larger pieces of debris along with the gathered debris. All of them where, in fact, intact fighters of both sides. Three of the first unknown scimitar-looking fighters, and about four of the second unknown's dart-looking fighters. All of them look minimally damaged, with only some damage from weapon fire along them. One of the dart-looking fighters was looking pretty much pristine just with a couple of holes in its cockpit, which made Luca flinch slightly as memories of similar scenes from the war emerged in his head.

"Major, I do believe this is a good chance to get a better idea on what we are dealing with," the man mentioned waving at the images. Aisha blinked at that and looked over his shoulder at the images before a moment later, she got what he was telling her.

"Ah! This is the first time we have seen pretty much intact pieces of their technology. Since in both previous battles, we only really recovered some pieces of debris that told us pretty much nothing about them," she mentioned before patting the young man on his shoulder.

"Especially if this pilot is still alive ma'am," Luca mentioned with a frown zooming on one of the dart fighters, which had a suited figure floating above its cockpit. Aisha's eyes widened before she nodded and patted him on the shoulder once more.

"Good idea there, Captain," she continued with a pleased look on her face before turning to face the rest of her bridge crew.

"Alright, you lot, you heard the Captain. Let's get going into that debris field," she ordered them with a pleased look on her face for the first time they could actually do their required mission of gathering needed intel on these unknowns.

"Also, operations have our fighters launch as we move in since we are going to need their help in recovering those fighters since we don't have any Work Pods onboard," she ordered, turning to look at one of her officers who only nodded at her before passing on the orders. She then turned to Captain Forte.

"And Mina, I want you to get working on that translation program. Since we are going to need to talk to that pilot if he or she is alive," she continued on, making her friend nod at her before turning back to her own station to follow her new orders.

"While you folks are doing that I shall pass on orders for a medical team to be gathered just in case it is needed," she mentioned, mostly to herself, as she sat down in her command chair and pressing a button on the control panel built into the armrest of the chair. As she turned attention to letting her medical officer know about gathering a medical team, the ship started to move.

**-o-o-o-**

With a roar, the engines of the _Gefion _flared as the ship started to move around the small moonlet that had once served as cover for the ship. As it did, the first pair of fighters, a couple of VF-19EF Caliburns, were flung into space by the ship's paired catapult decks. Within minutes the ship had launched its entire complement of fighters, including the pair of RVF-171 reconnaissance fighters, which were each joined by a single Ghost Drone. Several minutes after that, the ship started to enter the debris field slowing as it did so, and the fighters moving to start to retrieve the intact fighter-craft floating peacefully in the debris field. Unknown to the ship and its escorting fighters, one of the three intact scimitar-looking fighters seem to hum and a red eye started to appear at the top of its face that made up the front end of the fighter. The eye fuzzed off and on for a bit before it then finally turned on fully. It then swept back and forth for a moment before it seemed to focus on the approaching ship. A moment later, a cover slid over the eye covering it. In one of the fighter's two wing-mounted payload bay, an ominous red glow started to come from a trio of missiles carried in the bay. The fighter then seemed to settle in weight as the ship and its escort came ever closer.

-o-End-o-

**Post Chapter Notes  
**  
About freaking time! This chapter took forever to get correct! I may have rewritten it a couple of times. God. This chapter really did not want to be written for some reason. It is most likely one of the chapters in either story of the Wayward Series that has the most outtakes. Sigh. Still, I do hope I have gotten this right.

Anyways. Onto the good stuff. This is the first time I am using the whole letter as a chapter introduction thing. I really hope it reads well. That was one of the major hang-ups I was having with this chapter. I started to write it, then I threw that out and put everything in a short data-dump at the beginning of the chapter. That kind of worked and it wasn't that much different from my other chapters and their own data-dumps, but something seemed to be missing from the beginning of the chapter. I then went through several stages of adding the letter and removing it till I rewrote it slightly which is how it is now. Hopefully, this version works. I am at the point where I threw up my hands and just went with what I have now. I really don't know why it seemed so hard to write out.

Then there is the other major hang-up of the chapter. The mid-point of the chapter which is the other major part that I have rewritten more than a few times over the course of the past couple weeks. At first, I had the _Gefion _get jumped by a single Basestar and its Raiders, but that really didn't work as I intended it too. I then added a couple more things to get it working, including a scene where the SDF-13 arrives, but that was thrown out as well, though it may make an appearance in a later chapter. I then got the idea to introduce Cain's Fleet a bit and had them get jumped instead which I think makes more sense. It also allowed me to use Luca to explain why Macross Advanced Cross Dimensional Radar couldn't pick up Cylon ships jumping in like they could with Fold Drive equipped ships. I know that explanation is kind weak and that became yet another hang-up of this chapter. Grumble. Still, I hope it does make some sort of sense. I am not all that good with technobabble.

Alright. I believe that is about it for this chapter. One last thing is that I am going to be focusing on the next chapter for this story instead of jumping back to **Journey** like I usually do. Since I am quite close to finishing this story. I am sure you are all asking if I am going to get back **Journey **before the holiday swings in and takes up my time for the rest of the year? Well. I don't know, but I am going to try to at least get another chapter down before then. No promises though.

Okay, that's it. Till then. Ciao!


	8. Chapter Five: Mission Critical

**Chapter Five: Mission Critical **

_The _Northampton _Class Bloc F/S Frigate is a durative of the regular Bloc F Model that was developed for the use of the Strategic Military Services. It is heavily based on the older _Independence _Class Variant just with the same overall frame of the regular Bloc F. This makes the Bloc F/S Model fighter handling capability and compliment a bit under that of the longer _Independence _but still retains the primary and secondary batteries of the regular Bloc F Model _Northampton _Class to compensate. This gives the SMS a frigate design that can carry a decent number of fighters while still having the ability to combat enemy ships with its weapons. Though it should be noted that due to some rearrangement of the weapons of the design, one of the secondary batteries was removed. Still, the Bloc F/S retains enough combat power to serve as a front-line combatant though due to the mission of the SMS, it is often called to serve as an escort for civilian ships. _

_However, while the Bloc F/S does sport the ability to carry a pair of Valkyrie Squadrons in its extended hangar, it is not able to carry any armor, super packs or other external heavy weapons to equip its assigned fighters. This is mostly thanks to the limited amount of storage space set aside for the ship's hangar thanks in part to the larger hangar. Of which is mainly taken up by needed spare parts and external ordnance including a variety of different missiles that can be equipped to a fighter's own external payload pylons. Still, even then, the Bloc F/S didn't have enough storage space for an extended campaign which was deemed acceptable by the SMS due to their current mission of escorting civilian ships. _

_Another significant change done to the Bloc F/S was the introduction of an increasing amount of automation to the design. This was thanks to the rearrangement of crew spaces on the ship due to the larger hangar and the placement of the new catapults leaving a lesser amount of dedicated crew space. It also was thanks to the SMS sporting a smaller pool of trained crew than that of the larger New United Nations Spacy and its various Garrison Forces. Still thanks in part to a smaller crew then a normal Bloc F _Northampton _Class the crews of the Bloc F/S Ships were quite comfortable and as a result, they are quite close nit. _

_As the SMS continued to grow ever larger and their mission expanding away from the basic escort missions into the mid-2050s, a new ship design would be needed to replace the Bloc F/S ships. The result of which would be the awe-inspiring _Macross Quarter _Class Variable Assault Cruiser that while is somewhere around five times the price and twice the size of a Bloc F/S _Northampton _Class Frigate is far more versatile. Even then, the SMS would retain the use of the remaining Bloc F/S ships well into the 2060s as their secondary ships used either alongside a more significant _Quarter _or on missions by themselves. _

\- Taken from the Galactic Network Database article on _Northampton_ Class Frigate, Circa. June 2061AD

**-o-o-o-**

**Seven Pillar Solar System  
****September 29, 2061 AD**

With no fanfare or anything, a trio of lightweight nuclear warheads launched from a drifting and damaged enemy fighter much to the surprise of the crew of the SMS _Gefion_. One of the warheads veered off away from the approaching ship and hit a nearby asteroid while the remaining pair of warheads continued their suicide course towards the ship. Suddenly the ship's automated defense program went active and a pair of the ship's close-in defense mounts started to open fire on the approaching missiles. A moment later, one of the warheads was destroyed from the defensive fire while the remaining missile slammed into the side of the ship nearby the engines which tore into the unshielded hull with nuclear fire. The ship's deployed fighters paused in some surprise as their mothership veered sluggishly to one side with smoke and flame belching from the wound on its side. A pair of the fighters turned and opened fire on the drifting enemy fighter destroying it in its own tiny explosion.

On the bridge of the _Gefion, _various shrill alarms continued to sound as the bridge crew fought to keep control of their vessel as it careened away from its last course. A few moments later, a couple of the alarms were silenced as the ship's crew moved into action to control the damage while the bridge crew managed to get control of the ship before it could hit anything in the debris field. Shaking her head to clear it the ship's commander Major Aisha Blanchette got up from where she had been thrown from her command chair when the warheads hit. Wincing from the pain of several lacerations and other injuries across her body, the Major managed to make it back to her command chair.

"Report! What happened!?" she snapped out as she slowly lowered herself into the chair. She briefly berated herself for her lapse in judgment of not having the barriers up before they moved from their hiding spot. Still, she couldn't have predicted one of the disabled enemy fighters they had wanted to recover would still be active. Sighing Aisha look up at the bridge to see her trained bridge crew reacted seamlessly at her orders.

"One of the enemy fighters looked to be still active and launched a barrage of nuclear warheads at us while we passed," an officer from the bridge's tactical operations station reported a moment later.

"Our Automated Defense Protocols went active, which ended up destroying one of the missiles, leaving the last missile to hit us," the tactical officer continued on with their report making Aisha breathe a sigh of relief for her ship's automation reacted before her own crew could.

"The warheads managed to hit our port aft section, around section twenty-five to twenty-nine," the damage control officer reported a second after the tactical officer. Aisha growled at this before looking over at the sensor station, which had the harried form of Captain Luca Angelloni hard at work at the station.

"Sensors! How come you didn't detect it being active," she barked at the man wincing slightly as she pulled whatever had happened to her left leg when she shifted slightly in her seat to look at the sensor station. Luca looked up from his screens with a frown and turned to look at her.

"Ma'am. It was dead according to our sensors and the sensors of my Ghost Drones. There must be something different about how they power those fighters," the man explained with a worried looked on his face as he stared back at his holographic screens full of readings.

"Understood Sensors. I take it our fighters took it out before it could fire again?" she asked with a sigh making the young man blink at her for a moment before nodding.

"Correct ma'am. Wardog Two and Four both engaged it and destroyed it," Luca replied, making Aisha nod in some relief. She didn't know if that fighter would have any more ordnance or something else to throw at them to damage them further.

"Thank you, sensors," Aisha said before turning her attention over to her damage control officer located near the back of the tiny bridge. The woman at the station was also hard at work at her station, with numerous holographic screens opened above the station showing various parts of the ship. A couple of them showed camera feeds of different parts of the ship, while the remaining windows showed a wireframe of the damaged parts of the ship. Luca meanwhile had turned his attention back to his station.

"Any reports on casualties?" she asked the woman with a frown on her face.

"Not yet, ma'am. Damage Control Crews believe they are still some people trapped in parts of the damaged sections," the woman reported looking over at Aisha with a frown on her face. She was about to ask another question when Mina Fortes, her communication officer, looked up from her station.

"Ma'am Major Klang is online and wanting to talk to you," the blue-haired woman reported making Aisha blink before sighing and nodding at her friend in silent understanding. A moment later, a holographic window opened in front of her face showing the helmeted face of Klan Klang, the leader of her attached fighter squadron.

"Everything alright, ma'am?" the pilot asked with a frown barely able to be seen through her helmet's visor.

"We have suffered some damage, and my damage control teams are currently working on controlling the damage," she replied to the other woman who only nodded at this statement.

"Understood. Do you want us to return to help in the repairs?" Major Klang asked, making Aisha raise an eyebrow in some interest for she knew that like all Valkyries, the Messiahs and Caliburns of her deployed fighters had various tiny sub-arms built into their arms which can be used to help in repairs of other Valkyries or a larger ship like the _Gefion_.

"Negative Major. I want you to start bringing in those disabled fighters and any other notable pieces of debris you think will be viable. They are the more important right now then the ship," she ordered the pilot who looked a bit upset about the orders but only nodded in understanding.

"Understood, but Major, I won't need all my fighters for that. Shall I detail a couple of them to stay behind?" Klan fired back making Aisha blink at this before nodding for it would make some sense.

"That will work, Major. Thank you," she replied making the other woman only nod at her through the communication window.

"I shall detail Wardog Squad along with Recon Two and Recon Three to remain behind," the pilot reported making Aisha snort for she was sure Wardog would actually mutiny or something if Klan sent a couple of members of her own Flight Group back to the ship. By the look on the other woman's face, she was quite aware of that making Aisha chuckle to herself before nodding.

"Understood. Thanks, Major," she replied before dismissing the communication screen and turned back to her bridge crew. She blinked when she saw the figure of Luca standing up from his station with a frustrated look on his face. Sighing, he turned to look over at her with that same look on his face.

"Major. Apparently, we have received some damage to our sensors. Permission to launch in my fighter and take an overwatch position to cover our blind spots?" he asked of her, making Aisha raise an eyebrow in interest, but she nodded for it did make some sense to her.

"Granted," she ordered him, and then he was gone racing out of the bridge heading towards the hangar. A moment later, a younger rating came in and slid into the sensor station to replace him making her nod. That done, she turned to the rest of her bridge crew.

"Alright, let's get to work," she told them with a frown and that is what they did.

**-o-o-o-**

About an hour or so later found Aisha still on the bridge of the ship, though with the ship's doctor now kneeling at her side, wrapping a bandage around her torso. She grumbled at this but kept her attention on the man standing in front of her command chair scrolling through a datapad. This happened to be the man in charge of the engineering department of her ship. The man was currently providing her with a thorough briefing on the damages received and how the current repairs where going.

"So, in summary, ma'am. We can repair most of the damages on-site with our onboard resources but the damage to our Fold Drive we can't repair as of this moment. We would need to call for a tow back to Terra Nova or a tender to be sent to us to fully repair it," the man mentioned with a sigh making Aisha grit her teeth in some anger and shame. This was the second time they something like this had happened to her ship. Suddenly the older white-haired woman at her side snapped her fingers in front of Aisha's face attracting her attention.

"Aisha, it is not your fault," Doctor Major Karen Chakwas, the ship's chief medical officer, mentioned with a shake of her head when Aisha turned to look down at her in some confusion.

"You couldn't have known one of those enemy fighters was still active," the matron-like woman continued with a shake of her head.

"I could have ordered the barriers raised before we moved. We didn't need to remain in Stealth Mode anymore after all," Aisha mentioned with an almost snarl in her voice, making the older woman sigh and shake her head once more. However, before she could say anything else, the engineer spoke up with a sigh of his own.

"Ma'am. Yes, you could have ordered that, but there was little reason to do so. Remember, our barriers are quite the power hogs and we don't have the reactors of a larger ship. Therefore, it made sense you didn't order them raised when you detected no threat," the man calmly explained, making Aisha sigh and lean back in her seat. The doctor meanwhile exchanged a thankful nod with the engineer.

"Understood. Anything else to report Captain?" she asked the man who hummed in some thought as he slipped the datapad he was carrying into one of the numerous pockets of the engineer overalls he was wearing.

"Just that we were really lucky Major, for it could have been a lot worse than it could have been if either of the other two nukes hit the ship. Even with those baby nukes, those enemy fighters are carrying," the man explained making Aisha nod in some understanding at that before hissing as Doctor Chakwas pulled the bandage tight around her midriff.

"Careful Doc!" she mumbled with a wince making a few of the bridge officers chuckle under their breaths as they continued with their duties.

"There we go, Major. I still want to see you in Med-Bay when you have the time, for I believe you have pulled something in your leg," the Doctor mentioned not even caring for her patient's glare before Aisha sighed and nodded at the taller woman as she stood up.

"And the report on our causalities?" she asked the woman reminding her of the real reason why she was up on the bridge instead of in her med-bay taking care of the injured crew.

"I have about a dozen or so walking wounded like yourself that is not any serious, while a trio of more seriously injured are comfortably resting in the med bay. Other than that, we had no deaths at all from the crew. Like the Captain mentioned we were incredibly lucky," the Doctor reported waving a wave at the still-standing Engineer who nodded in agreement with her statement. Aisha could only shake her head in some awe at the report.

"What about our guest?" Aisha asked with a thoughtful look on her face mentioning the pilot of that they had recovered along with their fighter.

"Still knocked out in my secure ward, but I have done a blood test along with a few other minor tests on her. It looks like she is one hundred percent human, but with some distant Zentradi-based genetics, which means this race isn't some sort of Protoculture-created species like the Zentradi or the Tirolians," she reported making more than a few raised eyebrows and shocked looks across the bridge including Aisha. For that was something no one had even guessed about these people outside of them being somewhat related to the Protoculture due to their language bear a slight resemblance to an early Ancient Zentradi dialect. Though the idea this pilot had some form of Zentradi Genetics was a bit confusing.

"Woah. Well, it looks like we need to find these guys before they run into something that is over their heads like say a Zentradi Fleet," Aisha mentioned with a shake of her head as she stared out of the bridge viewport. A moment later, she turned to look at the Doctor.

"Let me know the moment our guest wakes up, for we are going to need all the information she has to hunt these people down," she ordered the older woman.

"Understood," she replied, making Aisha nod to her before turning her attention to the last figure standing in front of her command chair. This figure was quite shorter and younger than anyone on the bridge.

"That done. What is the preliminary report on the fighters we recovered?" she asked the young pink-haired teenager who had led the team looking over the two different types of fighters.

"Well Ai-Ai at first glance they seem to be based somewhat on Zentradi Fighter Pods, just shrunk down for a Miclone-like pilot. However, from further investigation, while it bears a slight resemblance to that of a Fighter Pod, it doesn't have any Zentradi Overtech. Or any Overtech at all," Specialist Makina Nakajima replied with a sigh as she crossed her arms over her chest. The others on the bridge could only stare at her in some surprise. Makina like a few other members of the ship's crew had been recruited directly from the population of Ouroboros during the ship's mission on the planet. While only fourteen in age she was quite a prodigy in Variable Fighter engineering, hence why she was chosen to lead the team giving the retrieved fighters a quick and dirty inspection.

"Figured. Those fighters didn't have any energy readings of any known Overtech," Luca Angelloni replied now back at the sensor station with a shake of his head. Makina nodded at him before bringing up various holographic windows showing different readings and such of the fighter.

"Yes. That said, these fighters, while basic in construction, are quite a feat of fighter engineering, for it not only is capable of space combat but thanks to its shape can also be used in atmospheric combat. From what we can see, the engines of this thing can even allow it to enter and exit a planet's atmosphere without any trouble," the young mechanic continued to explain as she pointed out various parts of the fighter during her explanation. Everyone nodded at this for it did make some sense to them; however, the young mechanic wasn't done yet as she brought up an image showing something that looked to be a port used for fueling.

"However, what really makes these fighters interesting is that they are powered by some sort of unknown fuel source, therefore, possess a fuel tank, and no I don't mean a tank for reaction mass but a real honest-to-god fuel tank," she mentioned and wasn't surprised by the shocked looks on the faces of the others.

"That should be impossible. Any known liquid fuel wouldn't be able to fully power a fighter of that size if it can freely operate both in space and in an atmosphere," Luca mentioned with wide eyes as he stared at the images brought up by the mechanic.

"Correct. Since there was still some of the fuel remaining in the tank, we took a sample but since we don't have the facilities for testing it onboard we have to wait till we are back at Terra Nova for any dedicated tests," the young mechanic mentioned with a nod the now interested looking Luca before turning her attention back to Aisha.

"As of the weapons, it is as was guessed when we first encountered the First Unknowns. They are basically a low caliber magnetically launched rapid-fire cannon. Against our own fighters, such weapons will need more than a few short bursts of fire to do any damage at all, and if the fighter is equipped with a pin-point barrier it will just bounce off," she continued on bringing up a few images of the weapons of the fighter. Everyone on the bridge looked quite interested at that for the idea that any weapon fire from these fighters was pretty much nothing against their own fighters was quite interesting to them all.

"So, in summary, while at first glance this type of fighter looks to be dated when compared to our newest Variable Fighters, however, upon a more thorough look it is quite an interesting design. It is my opinion that is one of the best non-Overtech Fighters we have ever seen," she finished dismissing the holographic windows. Aisha nodded at this but before she could say anything else, Luca looked at the mechanic with a frown.

"What about the second type of fighter, the ones used by the First Unknowns?" he asked the young mechanic who blinked at him in some surprise before exchanging looks with Doctor Chakwas at her place by the command chair. Aisha meanwhile leaned forward for a bit of a predator like look on her face. Makina sighed at this before opening a holographic window with a wave of her hand.

"The second type of fighter, nicknamed by the pilots as the Scimitar, is an interesting specimen for it isn't a piloted fighter as we know it," she mentioned pointing at the hologram which showed the insides of the fighter which made more than one member of the bridge crew look away in some in some revulsion on what was being displayed. Luca, though blinked in some surprise leaning forward to more thoroughly look at the displays. Aisha meanwhile could only stare in some confusion.

"You mean it's a Drone?" Luca asked in some interest. Once again, the mechanic exchange looks with the Doctor before the Doctor sighed and took a step forward.

"It's more like a biological drone Captain. It sports something that resembles a brain along with a variety of different supporting organs," the Doctor explained, making Luca look over at her in some surprise.

"Huh. That is something a couple of guys at the AI Institute on Eden was debating about a few years ago if I recall. Interesting to see a valid example of that theory," Luca mentioned in some thought as the stare at the holographic window with a thoughtful look on his face. He had mentioned the Institute of Advanced Computer Intelligence, though it was more often known as the AI Institute due to their studies on artificial intelligences.

"That is what one of my team members mentioned after we brought Doctor Chakwas in to help in studying it," Makina replied with a nod of her head to the medical Doctor who nodded back.

"Other than the biological bits inside the fighter, we looked over everything else to find that it is a bit more advanced than the first more human-operated fighter. Its engines are far more advanced, and it carried less fuel which more than likely meant that it was more efficient all around," she continued on with the explanation opening a few more holographic windows to show what she was talking about. Aisha nodded at this as she stared at the windows in some interest.

"Did you guys find out anything about the FTL Drive it carries?" Luca finally mentioned almost eagerly staring at the young mechanic who sighed and shook her head, bringing up another window up.

"Yes, we found it, but it seems to be damaged by something; therefore, we couldn't really figure out anything major about it. However, we did discover something interesting in that whatever they use as a fuel source also fuels their FTL Drive as well," she explained making Luca blink in some surprise at this before shaking his head and leaning back in his seat with a groan.

"Everything about this technology doesn't make any sort of sense," he said with a moan and another shake of his head.

"It's one thing that this mystery fuel has the power to allow their fighters to enter and exit a planet's atmosphere at will, it is quite another to have the power to allow a full-on Faster Than Light drive to be used," he mentioned with another groan as he rubbed his face in some irritation before staring at the opened holographic, mostly at the window showing some hard data the team had gathered on the fighter.

"The good news Captain is that we also managed to bring onboard a half-destroyed Scimitar, which has its FTL Drive pretty much intact. We pulled that along with a few other different things from the first Scimitar before packing them up so we can transport them back to the labs at Terra Nova," the mechanic explained making Luca nod at that cheering up at the thought of the advanced labs at the colony being able to find something about this weird technology.

"Anything else notable about either fighter-type Specialist?" Aisha butted in looking at Makina who turned to stare at her for a moment before sighing.

"Yes ma'am, about the human-operated fighter type. The two fighters we picked up seem to be of two different variants of the same basic design. One of them older than the other with the newer one being a bit more advanced than, the older one. It also sports a third main weapon built into the top of the fighter," she explained bringing a pair of wide-angle images of the two fighters showing the sheer differences between the two of them. As mentioned, one had a third weapon built into the top of one fighter and looked a bit more streamlined than the other one.

"Interesting. Anything notable on the Scimitar?" Aisha asked, making the young mechanic look thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head in answer making Aisha nod in some understanding. She then turned her attention to the others gathered on the bridge, however before she could say anything a harsh beeping started to sound from the sensor station getting the attention of the entire bridge. Luca turned to stare at the station in some confusion before it soon morphed into some concern as he looked over his various displays.

"What now?" Aisha said in some annoyance as she stared at Luca as he brought up a couple of further data windows.

"Major, I am currently detecting an incoming Fold Signature on the other side of the debris field from us. Now attempting to identity," Luca reported making everyone on the bridge take a breath in some expectation as Luca leaned forward to work at his station. A moment later, Luca seemed to stare in some shock at what he was seeing before turning and staring at the rest of the eagerly awaiting bridge. He then seems to shake himself and take a deep breath.

"Fold Signature is identified as the SDF-13 _Pioneer _of the Ninth Long Range Colonization Fleet," he reported making the others on the bridge gasp in some surprise before he turned back to his station while the rest of those gathered on the bridge turned to stare out the bridge's viewport in some excitement. The idea of a full-on Macross Class Ship being deployed was quite rare. Granted, they had seen _Battle _Class ships being deployed a few times, especially during the war, and they were all from SMS. Therefore, know about the _Macross Quarter_ Class, but this was a ship heavily based on the SDF-1 _Macross _herself. There was nothing as notable as seeing a full-on original _Macross _Class Super Dimensional Fortress in action. Even one of the _Hayase _Class SDFN wasn't as noteworthy as a regular _Macross _Class due to it being focused on carrying colonists and being an exploration ship.

"_Pioneer _is emerging from Fold in five seconds," Luca reported a few moments later, and soon enough, a white sphere of light could be now seen through the forward bridge viewport. From that sphere, the now legendary form of a cruiser-mode _Macross _Class ship could be seen emerging. However, after a moment, the chief engineer of the _Gefion _seemed to stare at the distant ship for a moment before turning to stare at the others in some confusion.

"What the hell have they done to that ship?" he said with a shake of his head. The others could only nod in some agreement.

**-o-End-o-**

**Post Chapter Notes**

While this chapter wasn't as challenging to write as the last chapter, it still was a bit hard to push through to finish it. Though I think that was mostly from starting to burn out with writing period since I have been writing almost continuously since the beginning of last month after all. No worries I fully intend to at least finish this story before anything else happens. I also plan on taking a bit longer break from writing to compensate.

That said. This chapter has a bit more technobabble as I am trying to give the impression of how weird tylium is compared to what the Macross humanity is used too. Since it is not just a regular old fuel source, but it also serves as a power source for the FTL drives of the Colonials and Cylons. Hence, they are some confusion about how this works. Will we get a reasonable explanation about that? Not in this story. The sequel maybe. I made another general nod to the similarity in between the Zentradi Fighter Pod, and that of the Viper. I also used something I said in comments at the story's Spacebattles thread, that the Viper is one of the best non-Overtech fighters seen yet.

Alright. I am sure you all confused about the appearance of Makina Nakajima, of Walkure Fame, at this early date. However, I can explain that in this version of events Makina and her family lived on Ouroboros, and during the _Gefion_'s stay on the said planet, the crew found that Makina's family were quite good Valkyrie Mechanics which saw them recruited to replace losses suffered in the opening battles of the Ouroboros Campaign. Also, I am putting Makina's birth year from 2049 to 2047 which would make her twenty during the events of Delta but fourteen here during this story. I always assumed she was in her twenties during my watch of Delta but was surprised to find out she is only eighteen. Therefore, I changed it to make more sense to me. Honestly. I am not sure about including her since I couldn't get her "voice" correct.

One last thing to mention here is that my plans for the rest of the story have changed from my earlier suggested plans for the remainder of this story. My original plan called for the next chapter to be a final interlude chapter exploring Gerald Cain and a quick look at his fleet before we get into the final chapters of the story. However, that plan has instead been changed with the Interlude chapter following our briefly mentioned Viper pilot. Since I figured the crews of the _Gefion _and the _Pioneer _would need some way of finding out where Cain's fleet moved too after the events of the last chapter. I am then adding something I was going to have around the last chapters of Lucky Miracle which will be the second-to-last chapter of the story.

With that said. I shall see you all in the next chapter where the question of: Who is our mysterious Viper pilot? Do we know her? Or is she an original character? Well, stay tuned my readers and you shall find out. Till then Ciao!


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